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In Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Ottawa Senators came out unrelentingly, blanking the Pittsburgh Penguins, sending the defending Stanley Cup champions' goalie to the bench and stealing a series lead in commanding fashion.

On Sunday, in Game 5, the story was much the same -- except, this time, entirely in favor of the Pens, 7-0.

After scoring only one goal in each of the first three games of this series, Pittsburgh's offense came to life in Game 4, then turned up the heat Sunday and never turned it off in grabbing a 3-2 series lead. They Penguins scored four goals in the first period against the helpless Sens.

Perfect on three power-play tries -- a feat Ottawa has only dreamed of accomplishing for much for much of this postseason -- the Penguins wasted no time mirroring the Senators' Game 3 rout. Ottawa pulled goalie Craig Anderson after it fell behind 3-0, but let Mike Condon play for only a minute before sending Anderson back in for the rest of the first period. Then Anderson sat for the rest of the game, which drew some commentary from Pittsburgh's social media team and epitomized the uncharacteristically porous day for Guy Boucher's blue line.

The Pens had no shortage of highlight-reel scores while they took a 4-0 lead by the end of the first period. After all, how don't you have at least a couple good-looking goals if you finish with seven different players putting the puck into the net?

Here's Sidney Crosby, who came alive in Pittsburgh's Game 4 rebound, using some combination of the puck's bounce and ... well, his incredible offensive talent to help get the Pens going early:

And here's Scott Wilson with the behind-the-net dagger that made it 4-0:

Carter Rowney left his mark on the game, too, logging a trio of assists for the Pens, while Evgeni Malkin made up for a frustrating lack of success during Ottawa's run earlier in the series by tying and then surpassing Mario Lemieux in all-time postseason assists with the team. Bryan Rust, Phil Kessel, Matt Cullen and Trevor Daley all got in on the action, pushing the Pens into football territory with goals spread across the game's three periods.

Meanwhile, in the net, Matt Murray's play was perhaps overshadowed by his team's offensive explosion, but the youngster still halted all 25 of the Sens' shots on goal Sunday, notching his second successive victory since replacing Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 4.

Talk about a dramatic turnaround for Pittsburgh, which looked lifeless two games ago: a Sens win reminiscent of the Washington Capitals' Game 6 rout of the Pens in this postseason's second round. Now the Penguins are one victory from a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

For the Senators, however, it is now very clearly do-or-die time in Ottawa, which will play host to Game 6. Aside from the fact they're one loss from elimination, they're still wrestling with man-advantage issues (0 for 4 on Sunday), and could be without their star defenseman and scoring catalyst in Erik Karlsson, who exited Game 5 with an apparent ankle injury.