DOUBLED OVER
OTTAWA — Lose one game in dramatic fashion, and it is hard to swallow. Lose two in a row, and suddenly the Rangers’ season is on the verge of asphyxiation.
Three utterly jarring moments in succession from Senators center Jean-Gabriel Pageau handed the Rangers a gruesome defeat, a 6-5 loss in double-overtime in Game 2 of their second-round series as Saturday afternoon turned into Saturday night.
It put the Rangers in a 2-0 hole in the bestof-seven series as the scene shifts to the Garden for Game 3 on Tuesday night. It is a dire situation, indeed, and goalie Henrik Lundqvist could do little to stop Pageau from scoring four goals and sending the Blueshirts home with their tail between their legs.
“I wasn’t good enough,” Lundqvist said after stopping 28 of 34 shots, which followed a brilliant performance in a Game 1 loss Thursday. “Coming up with that extra save there at the end, that’s my job. Even though it’s tough plays and deflections, I’ve got to find a way.”
The Rangers held a lead 3-1 in the second period, then 5-3 early in the third. But Pageau scored twice in a span of 2:18, the second with just 62 seconds remaining in regulation to tie it, 5-5. After a mind-boggling first overtime period, Pageau then got the game-winner 2:54 into the second extra frame, taking advantage of a faulty pinch from Rangers defenseman Nick Holden, coming down with a 2-on-1 and beating Lundqvist high glove side to set off the celebration in Canada’s capital city.
“It’s going to be tough tonight, tomorrow, and then you move on,” Lundqvist said. “There’s no other way.”
The general consensus about the Rangers’ game was summarized when Lundqvist said, “We played well enough to win this game, there’s no question about it.” But holding onto that lead was difficult after coach Alain Vigneault had shortened the bench in the third period, and the Senators just kept pushing.
Asked when he felt the game was getting away from him, Vigneault scoffed.
“Never felt it was,” he said. “We played a real good game. We’re doing what we needed to do, and they made the most of their opportunities.”
The character of the game was drastically different than the first match of this series, when the Senators employed their neutralzone trap to suck much of the air out of what would be their 2-1 victory, coming on a fluke shot from Erik Karlsson with 4:11 left in regulation. But this game was far more open from the start, with the Rangers getting two short-handed goals, one apiece from Michael Grabner and Derek Stepan, while getting two more just moments after their own power plays had ended.
One of those was from Chris Kreider at
13:10 of second period, and the other was the first of two in the game from rookie defenseman Brady Skjei, who made it 4-2 at 15:51 of the second after Ottawa had a firstperiod goal from Pageau and a 4-on-4 goal from defenseman Mark Methot at 14:00 of the second. But Mark Stone got one 1:28 into the third to cut the Rangers’ lead to 4-3 before Skjei extended it back to 5-3 just over three minutes later.
“It’s funny how a playoff series will [change],” Stepan said. “Game 1 will play one way, and Game 2 will be completely different.”
What made this game different was that as the Rangers tried to hold onto that lead, Pageau managed to get into the slot and redi- rect a Zack Smith shot passed Lundqvist, making it 5-4 with just 3:19 remaining in regulation. Then with Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson on the bench, Kevin Hayes broke his stick and a blast from Kyle Turris was deflected by Pageau in front, a nifty play that tied it.
“Two good plays by them,” Lundqvist said. “Clearly, they’ve gotten the bounces here in the first two games, just have to go home and regroup.”
That is certainly easier said than done, but the Rangers have no choice. The season depends on it.
“It’s definitely a tough one to swallow,” Dan Girardi said. “Can’t really say much about it now. It’s over, and that one hurts — a lot.”