This Thursday, the Pittsburgh Penguins will try to take their lead further against the Ottawa Senators (7:00 pm ET, TSN) at Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Penguins have a regular season record of 47-28-7, 101 pts and the Senators have 44-32-6, 94 pts.

Defending champion Pittsburgh twice came back to win series. After losing the first two games, they advanced to the Stanley Cup finals twice, in the past two years. “Playoff series are all about getting four wins and trying to get there as quickly as you possibly can,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. The presence of superstars like Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, the defending champions remain the favorites.

Their ace defenseman Anton Volchenkov has to be at his best. The game is very tough one. “Being down 3-1, it’s a tough position to be in to come back,” Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. Filip Kuba will be a missing ingredient in the Senato’s line up. The presence of Chris Phillips will help the team for sure. The defense should make a good effort to shut Sidney Crosby of Penguins.

Current NHL Public Betting Information shows that 51% of more than 597 bets for this game have been placed on the Senators +250.

The white-hot Ottawa Senators visit the Toronto Maple Leafs in a battle of Northeast division rivals on Saturday night (7 pm ET, NHLN-US, CBC)

Check out NHL Hockey Betting at Sportsbook.com for the latest odds for this matchup.

Ottawa has won a franchise-record 11 straight games heading into Saturday’s clash with the Maple Leafs.

Both teams are 5-4-0-1 over the past 10 head-to-head. Seven of the past 10 meetings have gone under the total.

This is the fourth meeting of the season between the division rivals. The Senators are 2-1 in the season series. The teams last met on Dec. 14, when the Maple Leafs picked up a 3-2 win as a -125 home favorite.

Ottawa won its 11^th in a row on Thursday, beating the visiting Vancouver Canucks 3-1 as a -110 favorite.

Toronto faced the New Jersey Devils on the road on Friday night, the teams’ third meeting in the past week. The Leafs’ previous game was at home to the Devils on Tuesday, when they shut out New Jersey 3-0 as a +125 home underdog.

Ottawa is 33-21-4 this season. Toronto is 18-28-11.