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 Wednesday as Ottawa fans decked themselves out with facepaint and colourful regalia to cheer on their hometown heroes.

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

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

Mike Hoffman, deciding that shooting from in front of the net is such a cliché, banked a shot off of the pads of Penguins netminder Marc-André Fleury into 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 have missed a furious 138-second span in which the Sens tacked on three more goals, courtesy of Marc Methot, Derick Brassard and Zack Smith.

Suddenly, the score was 4-0. The flurry of offense had Ottawa city councillor Scott 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 the corners 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 keep the Senators off the scoreboard for most of the second. Problem was, the Penguins couldn't figure out how to get onto it.

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 Crosby got 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 Senators fans, the night was pretty much purr-fect.

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