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Ottawa Senators left wing Clarke MacArthur is surrounded by teammates after scoring the winning goal against the Boston Bruins during the overtime period of game six of the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on Sunday, April 23, 2017. The Senators won 3-2 in overtime.Greg M. Cooper

Almost two full seasons – 156 consecutive games – lost to concussion. Two years of fighting annoying retirement questions and unwelcome medical advice, self-doubt and uncertainty.

And then, suddenly, you're the playoffs hero.

Meet Clarke MacArthur, the 32-year-old Lloydminster, Alta., native who scored the overtime goal Sunday afternoon that gave the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins, sending the Senators into the next round of the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Senators meet the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semi-final.

The winning goal came on a power-play opportunity, the key play coming from another player so often written off, Bobby Ryan, who ended the six-game series as Ottawa's leading scorer with nine points. Ryan's cross-crease pass struck a Boston player and then, MacArthur thought, Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask's stick before landing on his own stick. One quick roll of the wrists and Boston was finished and Ottawa moving on.

"It's just awesome," a jubilant MacArthur said. "To be back playing – and to end the game like that.

"I was just lucky enough to be in the right spot. You get an opportunity like that, you've got to put it away."

MacArthur indicated later that there were "a few times" during his two-year odyssey through baseline tests and neurosurgeon meetings when he believed his career was finished. Finally cleared to play again at the end of this regular season, he improved game by game, ending with two goals against Boston over the six games.

"It's something everyone has to deal with one day," he said. "But I just wanted to stretch it out as long as I could."

The Senators kept their dressing room door closed for several minutes after the win, during which his teammates applauded and saluted the popular forward.

"He's a great friend of mine," defenceman Dion Phaneuf said. "A great ending to the series."

"He was the right guy to make the overtime winner," captain Erik Karlsson added.

It was an unusual series in that first goals, long considered so important in playoff hockey, had little to no importance. In six games, the team scoring first won but two of the matches.

Despite the team's long history, Boston had never before come back to win a seven-game series in which it had fallen behind three games to one. The Bruins still have yet to accomplish this.

"We battled hard to give ourselves a chance," Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron said. "It definitely stings a lot."

While other teams dropping out in the opening round are talking rebuilding already, the Bruins would be well advised to take the advice of former Boston general manager Harry Sinden, who once responded to a disappointing elimination by saying, "The remedy now is two Scotches and an Aspirin, I think."

On reflection, this was a tough, hard-fought series that could have been won by either team. Four of the games went to overtime. This contributed to an NHL record for overtime games in an opening round, with a remarkable 18 matches going into extra time.

Keen to avenge Friday's double-overtime comeback loss in Ottawa, the Senators were determined to start well in this game. Yet they did not. Despite doubling up on the Bruins in opening-period shots, with 12, the Senators looked disoriented. Granted three gift extra-man situations on a rare three straight delay-of-game calls against the Bruins, the troubled Ottawa power play continued to sputter, moving to a bleak 3-for-21 for the playoffs. The Senators could not even manage a single shot on net during the three straight power plays.

Rask proved unbeatable in the first 20 minutes. Ottawa's Craig Anderson was also good but finally faced his own man-advantage situation when the Bruins power play completed a sweeping series of passes before Drew Stafford one-timed a shot into the Ottawa net for the game's first lead.

Ottawa's fourth power play of the afternoon came in the second period when, finally, they transferred the x's and o's to the ice, with Karlsson, who is rumoured to be playing with two small fractures in his left heel, sending a quick pass across to Derick Brassard, who one-timed a slap shot from the blueline that tipped in off Ryan.

The much-maligned Brassard and Ryan came through regularly in the series, proving once again that regular and postseason at times have little in common other than the surface they are played on.

The Senators went ahead when speedy winger Ryan Dzingel gathered up a loose puck in the Boston end during a broken play, slipped it to Kyle Turris and Turris's hard wrist shot beat Rask on the blocker side.

For Turris, the team's leading scorer during the regular season with 27, it was his first of the playoffs.

Early in the third period, with the Senators attempting to play lock-down hockey, the Bruins caught a break on a poor Ottawa change and Bergeron was able to hammer home a puck that had hit his skate, the Ottawa post and had bounced back onto his stick.

"No lead is safe," MacArthur said.

"Both teams weren't giving an inch," Senators head coach Guy Boucher said.

If Ottawa seemed listless in the third, it was anything but in the overtime, taking charge early and challenging often.

"We stuck with it," Karlsson said. "We had a feeling in here [the dressing room] that we were going to be fresh. We never gave up, even though we were down in the first period."

"We said, 'We're not going to play on our heels,' " Boucher said. "Instead of being scared to lose, we were hungry to win."

"It was a tough series," Phaneuf added. "It's a great feeling."

The Calgary Flames were licking their wounds Friday after being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks. General manager Brad Treliving says the team is on the “cusp” of success, but must work for it.

The Canadian Press

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