8 tweets that defined Game 3 of the Senators-Penguins series

After splitting the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals in Pittsburgh, the Ottawa Senators were back on the ice in Kanata for Game 3 Wednesday night.

• 8 tweets that defined Game 1 of the Senators-Penguins series
• 8 tweets that defined Game 2 between the Senators and Penguins

And the Canadian Tire Centre was certainly the place to be Wednesdayas Ottawa fans decked themselves out with facepaint and colourful regalia to cheer on their hometown heroes.

The pre-game spectacle also featured oneof the city's other on-ice superstars,world curling champion Rachel Homan.

Perhaps the presence of a global champ subconsciouslygalvanized the Senators, because it didn't take long at all 48 seconds, to be precise for the teamto open scoring.

Mike Hoffman, deciding that shooting from in front of the net is such aclich, bankeda shot off of the pads of Penguins netminder Marc-Andr Fleuryinto the back of the Pittsburgh net.

Just like that, it was 1-0.

If you decided that was a good time to go get a couple egg rolls,well, hopefully they were exceptionally delicious.

Because you proably would havemissed a furious 138-second span in which the Senstacked on three more goals, courtesy of Marc Methot, Derick Brassard and Zack Smith.

Suddenly, the score was 4-0. The flurry of offense hadOttawa city councillorScott Moffatt likely preparing a motion to declare Pittsburgh not a very good hockey squad:

The narrative after Game 2 was that the Senators' defensive-minded 1-3-1 play in the neutral zone was a bore to watch.

Twitter certainly had a lot to say about that line of thinking after the four goals including the folks who run the team's own account.

Meanwhile, in thecorners of the internet where Pittsburgh Penguins fans gather:

Pittsburgh pulled itself together after the Sens' opening period onslaught, relieving Fleury of his duties and sending in Matt Murray in his stead.

That move seemed to help keepthe Senators off the scoreboard for most of the second. Problem was, the Penguins couldn't figure out how to getontoit.

With approximately two minutes left in the second, Kyle Turris made it 5-0 for the home team, with a nifty little deke that got the best of Murray.

Heading into the third, the only real questions were how many goals the Senators would score, and whether Craig Anderson would maintain the shutout.

Turns out he would not: Sidney Crosbygot one back for Pittsburgh, tipping a Phil Kessel shot home for his first goal of the series, but it was too little, too late.

The horn would blow, and Ottawa would come away with a decisive 5-1 win over the Penguins and more importantly, a two-games-to-one lead in the Eastern Conference final.

For Senatorsfans, the night was pretty much purr-fect.

Game 4 takes place at the Canadian Tire Centre on Friday.