BAD BLOOD IN THE BIG APPLE
Rangers knot series with Senators in testy Game 4 — and Phaneuf wasn’t the only one tossed
IN YOUR FACE Ranger Chris Kreider and Dion Phaneuf of the Senators scrap in the second period of New York’s 4-1 victory at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. Phaneuf fought again late in the third and was ejected, along with dance partner Brenden Smith of the Rangers.
NEW YORK— Henrik Lundqvist made 22 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 4-1win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal.
The best-of-seven series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre.
Oscar Lindberg scored twice for the Rangers, and Nick Holden and Chris Kreider each added a goal. New York’s bottom six forwards did the heavy lifting offensively, as that group finished with two goals and five assists for seven points in the win. Tanner Glass recorded two assists, and the troika of Kevin Hayes, J.T. Miller and Michael Grabner each had an assist.
Kyle Turris scored the Senators’ lone goal as Ottawa dropped its second in a row, but that was secondary to potentially three bigger issues. First is that captain Erik Karlsson did not play the third period. Karlsson, who said after the Game 6 win against Boston in the Eastern Conference quarter-final he had been playing with two hairline fractures in his left heel, fell awkwardly late in the second after battling for a puck along the boards with Miller. Karlsson finished with a shot and three attempted shots in 14:54 of ice time spanning the first two periods.
The second issue for Ottawa is that Craig Anderson allowed three goals on 20 shots in two periods before being replaced by Mike Condon. Condon stopped 9-of-10 shots in the third.
Finally, the Senators also lost their composure, especially in the third period. Dion Phaneuf was ejected late in the third for fighting Brendan Smith — who was also ejected — and Bobby Ryan was assessed a two-minute minor for slashing Dan Girardi and a 10-minute misconduct with 2:28 left.
The final 30 seconds of play devolved into a series of fights beginning with a bout involving Glass and Turris. The following faceoff saw the on-ice officiating crew have to break up wrestling matches involving players from both sides.
During Wednesday’s off day, Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher spoke about the need to play tighter defensively in the neutral zone and in their end of the ice. And the Senators’ structure was sounder than it had been in Games 2 and 3. The game resembled a modern-era playoff hockey instead of the free flowing style New York employs.
Yet it was the Rangers who opened the scoring for the fourth consecutive game with Holden’s perfectly placed shot between Anderson’s blocker and pad at 14:04 of the first giving New York a 1-0 lead. Holden’s goal was his first of 2017 playoffs.
By the second intermission, it was 3-0. Lindberg tapped in a cross-ice feed from Grabner to finish a 2 on 0. Late in the frame,Lindberg hammered a heavy shot from the left side which ricocheted in and out of the net as Glass screened Anderson.
While the Senators did finish with 23 shots, the vast majority were harmless attempts from the perimeter. Perhaps Lundqvist’s most difficult stops were an in-tight chance from Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the first period.