Apr 6, 2007 2 min read

OTTAWA (AP) – Maxime Talbot scored with 9.8 seconds remaining to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 win over Ottawa on Thursday night and preserve an opportunity to claim home-ice advantage in their first-round playoff matchup against the Senators. Talbot put a shot past Ray Emery into the top of the net during a 4-on-4 situation in the dying moments of the third, moving Pittsburgh into a tie with Ottawa for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 103 points.

Maxim Ouellet and Gary Roberts both scored power-play goals during a five-minute elbowing major against Ottawa’s Jason Spezza in the first.

Spezza scored his 32nd on a power-play 7:59 in and assisted on Dany Heatley’s 49th goal in the second.

Pittsburgh, which had lost two in a row (0-1-1), will finish second in the Atlantic. The Penguins host the New York Rangers on Saturday, and will face the Senators when the playoffs begin next week.

Ottawa, which lost 2-1 in a shootout in New Jersey on Tuesday, finishes its schedule Saturday in Boston.

Each of the game’s first four goals were scored on the power play, including Spezza’s goal which opened the scoring.

The playoffs may be a week away, yet the bad blood between the teams began in the opening period.