Karlsson leads Sens past Rangers, into East Finals

Anderson makes 37 saves

NEW YORK, May 10, (AP): Erik Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators showed off their toughness in the third period. The New York Rangers pushed and pushed, but the resilient Senators held on — all the way to their first Eastern Conference Final in 10 years.

Karlsson had a goal and an assist, Craig Anderson made 37 saves and the Senators eliminated the Rangers with a 4-2 victory in Game 6 of their second-round series Tuesday night.

“We knew they were going to come back with a real good push,” Senators forward Kyle Turris said. “We knew it was going to be probably the hardest period of the playoffs for us so far. It was and we just tried to weather the storm.”

Trailing 3-1 after two periods, New York pulled within one on Chris Kreider’s goal 53 seconds into the third. The Rangers outshot the Senators 15-5 in the final period, but couldn’t find the equalizer.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau clinched the series for Ottawa with an empty-netter with 6.2 seconds left for his seventh goal of the postseason.

“They had chances and a lot of them,” forward Mark Stone said. “That was the time when we needed our goaltender to be big.”

Stone and Mike Hoffman scored in the first period for Ottawa, and Clarke MacArthur finished with two assists.

Clarke MacArthur #16 of the Ottawa Senators skates with the puck against Jesper Fast #19 of the New York Rangers during the first period in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 9 in New York City. (AFP)

The Senators, headed to the conference finals for the first time since their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, will face Pittsburgh or Washington in the next round. Their series is headed to Game 7 on Wednesday night.

Mika Zibanejad also scored for New York, and Henrik Lundqvist had 22 saves.

“We had a lot of chances that I think we let slip through our fingers,” Rangers center Derek Stepan said, “but it’s a good team over there. Don’t sell them short. They battled real hard, they played real strong games, and they had that magic. Sometimes you’ve got to have a little bit of that.”

Kreider had a chance to tie it a little over 5 minutes into the third, but didn’t get a clean shot on a pass from Zibanejad. His attempt from in front trickled off his stick and was stopped by Anderson.

Lundqvist made some stellar saves late in the third, including a stop on Derick Brassard from the right side with 5 minutes left.

“Right now all you feel is disappointment and it’s a numb feeling,” Lundqvist said. “It’s not a great feeling. You realize how much work and how many hours you put into this to put yourself in this spot to get this chance.”