OTTAWA -- When things are going good, even passes are finding the way to the back of the net.

That's what happened for Pittsburgh Penguins winger Carl Hagelin on the deciding goal in a 5-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at Canadian Tire Centre.

"The plan was to pass it to Phil (Kessel), backdoor," said Hagelin. "It came off my stick a little bit weird there and fooled the goalie. I'll take it."

The goal, Hagelin's second of the third period with 5:57 left, erased a three-goal goal deficit as the Penguins (47-25-8) won their seventh in a row and 13th of the last 14. The win allowed the Penguins to remain three points ahead of the New York Rangers in the race for second place in the Metropolitan Division, and home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The loss was the second in a row for the Senators (36-35-9), who were mathematically eliminated last week.

Senators goalie Andrew Hammond also thought Hagelin was trying to pass on the winner.

"I just kind of opened up too much and he was able to squeak it off the post there," said Hammond, who made 24 stops. "It's just a save I've got to make."

Sidney Crosby also scored twice for the Penguins, the second into an empty net with 6.3 seconds remaining. Patric Hornqvist had the other Pittsburgh goal Nick Bonino chipped in with three assists.

Erik Karlsson became the first defenseman since Nicklas Lidstrom 19 years ago to reach the 80 point plateau when he scored his 100th career goal in the first period. Mike Hoffman and Zack Smith also scored for the Senators, who were up 3-0 at the 3:33 mark of the second.

It was the second three-goal comeback in a week for the Penguins, who rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 in a shootout March 29.

"It's happened a couple of times here in the last little bit, where we get down early in games," said Penguins goalie Matt Murray, who made 27 saves to win his fourth game in row while subbing for injured starter Marc-Andre Fleury. "We don't cheat, which is how you have to play. I think a lot of times the tendency when you get down would be to cheat for the offence, and you might have a turnover and a chance the other way. We didn't do that."

After watching their lead disappear, the Senators had a glorious chance to jump back in front when winger Alex Chiasson had the puck with an open net staring him in the face. But as he shot, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang managed to move across to stop the puck from going in the net.

"Great play by him to have the awareness to get there," said Chiasson. "I didn't have much time to get available there, to get available, try to get a little bit on the puck. Just a tough bounce to not get it in."

The Senators also blew a three-goal lead their last home game, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on March 26.

"I feel like we've been over this, this year," said Chiasson. "You're up 3-0, you've got to play the game the right way. We scored three goals, why do we need another goal? You've got to back check, you've got to play on the defensive side of the game. You've got to have good awareness, who's on the ice.

"We're a young group, we've got a lot to learn but this is not the first time we've talked about this."

The key for the Penguins was surviving a 5-on-3 shorthanded situation for 1:32 after Hagelin had tied the game at 4:19 of the third.

"That 5-on-3 is huge," said Crosby. "We climb back in the game and they get a 5-on-3. It wasn't our best game by any stretch, but we definitely understood there were some key times in the game. (Letang) makes a key defensive play, we get a big kill on the 5-on-3 ... sometimes it's not the whole 60 minutes, it's just the timing of things. We got some big plays at the right time to allow to get back in the game."

As has been the case on numerous occasions this season, Senators coach Dave Cameron bemoaned his team's puck management.

"It's discouraging from the point of view on the third and fourth goals, we had the puck on our stick, we had pure possession of the puck and it ended up in our net," said Cameron. "That's frustrating.

"We've been talking all along about puck management, we did a good job getting up 3-0 with the puck management, but with the game tight, we got away from it. In this league, against a surging team like Pittsburgh, that's where it ends up."

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan praised his team's mental toughness.

"It wasn't the start we wanted," said Sullivan. "I don't think we were at our best, but we found a way to win and we found a way to get points. We climbed back into it.

"When we get down three goals, that's a tough climb. I loved the resilience our guy showed to crawl back into it one goal at a time. For men, that's kind of been part of the identity of this group here moving forward is they've showed themselves that regardless of how the game goes, especially early on, if we get down in games, we have the ability to come back. I think it's an indication of the mindset of this group right now. There's a mental toughness there that we can battle through some of that adversity even though we're not at our best."

Senators winger Bobby Ryan left the game with an apparent lower-body injury in the first period. There was no update on his status.

NOTES: Senators RW Buddy Robinson became the eighth player in the organization to make his NHL debut this season. Robinson, signed as a free agent out of Lake Superior State University, is in the third and final year o his entry level contract with Ottawa ... Senators D Marc Methot left the morning skate with an undisclosed injury, forcing the recall of Senators D Ben Harpur .... While Penguins C Evgeni Malkin remains out with an upper body injury, the second line has not suffered. Heading into Tuesday, RW Phil Kessel, C Nick Bonino and LW Carl Hagelin had combined for 35 points, including 14 goals, in 12 games. Pittsburgh was 11-1 in its first dozen games without Malkin ... Penguins D Derrick Pouliot was scratched and D Brian Dumoulin took his spot in the lineup ... Senators coach Dave Cameron was named to Team Canada's staff for the 2016 Ice Hockey World Championship, from May 6-22 in Moscow and St. Petersburg Russia. Cameron and former Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo will be assistants to Carolina Hurricanes coach Bill Peters.