RANGER DANGER
New York closes series gap, 2-1
RANGERS 4, SENATORS 1
The Ottawa Senators looked like a bad act on Broadway on Tuesday night.
The New York Rangers served notice they’re not going to go down without a fight in their Eastern Conference semifinal with a dominating 4-1 victory that made it look like the Senators weren’t ready for prime time under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.
Suddenly, it’s the Senators feeling the heat as the momentum moved squarely in the direction of the Rangers. Their outstanding effort cut Ottawa’s lead to 2-1 in the series, with Game 4 set for Thursday in New York. The result also means there will be a Game 5 on Saturday in Ottawa.
Henrik Lundqvist was better than he showed in 6-5 doubleovertime loss Saturday in Ottawa, with only Jean-Gabriel Pageau able to beat the Rangers goaltender. Beyond that, the Senators didn’t have a whole lot in the way of chances. They tried to get back into the game in the third, but by that point the Rangers were sitting on their lead.
Meanwhile, Senators netminder Craig Anderson, who saw his lifetime record — including playoffs — fall to 9-4-1 at MSG, wasn’t at his best and he didn’t have any help, either. Mats Zuccarello, Michael Grabner, Rick Nash and Oscar Lindberg did the scoring for the Rangers, who knew if they fell behind 3-0 in this series, it was essentially over.
To make matters worse, the Senators finished the night without winger Bobby Ryan and centre Zack Smith, who both departed the game with injuries. Ryan was left limping after he took a shot from teammate Erik Karlsson in the thigh in the third period, while Smith left the ice in the first period with an upper-body injury after taking a hit from Tanner Glass.
Senators head coach Guy Boucher knew it was going to be difficult for the Senators to match what the Rangers were going to throw at them.
“It’s easy to say there’s desperation, but until there is, it’s something you have to create superficially,” Boucher said before the game. “We’re desperate to win every game and if you look at the consequences of today’s game, they’re big and our players are aware of that.
“I’m looking at today as the toughest game we’ll have all year long, and that’s how I approach it. They’re going to be at their best, their most desperate and their players will do what they do best, and we can’t expect anything below that.”
He was absolutely right on that point.
By the end of the second period, this was ugly for Ottawa in a lot of ways. Pageau, who had four goals Saturday in Game 2, pulled the Senators to within 4-1 with 1:11 left. Only 24 seconds earlier, Lindberg ’s first career playoff goal gave the Rangers a 4-0 lead and the Senators were just no match.
The Rangers pulled out to a 3-0 lead on the strength of Nash’s third goal of the playoffs at 12:21 of the second. Breaking in on a two-onone with Derek Stepan, Nash took a pass and beat Anderson on the glove side. The Senators were caught up ice after Karlsson and Mark Stone collided to create the odd-man rush.
After 20 minutes, the Senators certainly didn’t even look like they were ready for the hand they were dealt by the Rangers. Trailing 2-0, they were lucky it wasn’t worse because the Blueshirts held a 15-5 edge in shots. The Senators barely had the puck and it’s fair to say the Rangers were pretty much given free rein to do whatever they wanted.
It was a rough night in a lot of ways for the Senators.
After defending his play behind the net only 24 hours earlier, Anderson got caught in a bad spot on the second goal. He went to play a puck along the boards, backed off when he thought Ben Harpur would take it and then couldn’t get back to his net as Grabner picked up the loose puck to deposit in the open side at 13:24.
Throughout these playoffs, the Senators have talked ad nauseam about not allowing the opposition to set the tone in the first 10 minutes. Tuesday’s start didn’t bode well for Ottawa and Zuccarello opened the scoring at 5:31 when he took a feed from Mika Zibanejad in the slot, then fired it by Anderson on the stick side.
It’s not like the Senators weren’t prepared for this approach by the Rangers.
“We know they’re going to come out strong. It’s their building, they probably want to set the tone and it’s not something that we’re not used to,” Karlsson said before the game. “We’re going to have to match that throughout the beginning and hope that it takes us through the game.”
That certainly didn’t materialize.