Rangers take advantage of timeout

The biggest moment of the New York Rangers’ post-season-opening win came when play was stopped, and the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference tried to catch its breath at the bench.

The Rangers were nursing a one-goal lead in the second period, but the Ottawa Senators were all over them. Coach John Tortorella used his lone timeout, and shifted momentum completely.

Marian Gaborik and Brian Boyle scored minutes apart shortly after, and the Rangers rolled to a 4-2 victory over the Senators on Thursday night.

“We wanted to stop slapping the puck around,” Tortorella said. “We kept smacking it back to them.”

The Rangers, the No. 1 seed in the East for the first time since they won the Stanley Cup in 1994, shook off their 1-2-1 regular-season mark against the Senators and easily dispatched them in Game 1.

Ryan Callahan scored in the first period, Gaborik and Boyle pushed the lead to 3-0, and Brad Richards added a goal in the third for the Rangers.

New York will host the No. 8 Senators again on Saturday night before the bestof-seven series shifts to Ottawa for Games 3 and 4 next week.

“That is the way we have to play to win,” Callahan said. “We felt like we’ve been playing playoff hockey right through the season.

“It’s still a long series left. Taking Game 1 doesn’t mean much.”

Henrik Lundqvist was sharp early, stopping Jason Spezza on a partial breakaway and then turning aside Jim O’brien, who weaved his way through the New York defence before getting off an in-close drive that was knocked away.