Hartford Courant (Sunday)

Georgiev falters early, but Rangers rally to win

- By Colin Stephenson Newsday

OTTAWA, Ontario — With his team riding three straight wins and having a chance to sweep its first extended road trip of the young season, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant took the long view and opted to rest his No. 1 goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, and start backup Alexandar Georgiev in the finale of the trip Saturday afternoon.

The day got off to a rough start when Georgiev was beaten just 41 seconds in by a shot from Nick Paul, and things got worse when Josh Norris doubled the lead with a four-on-four goal 1:04 into the third period.

But the Rangers rallied with three goals in a 3-minute, 20-second span in the final 5:23 for a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators to complete the sweep of their four-game road trip through Montreal, Toronto, Nashville and Ottawa. They return to Madison Square Garden to host the Calgary

Flames on Monday.

“We didn’t do a whole lot in the first two periods, but we kept it close,” Gallant said afterward. “... And sometimes that’s what happens when you keep the game close.”

It happened because the Rangers’ power play, which had entered the game 2-for-20 on the season and had failed to score on its first three attempts Saturday, finally came up big after Parker Kelly was called for hooking K’Andre Miller at 13:48 of the third period. Chris

Kreider redirected in a pretty feed from Artemi Panarin at 14:23 of the period to get the Rangers on the

board. It was his fourth goal of the season, and, in Georgiev’s eyes, was the game’s turning point.

“Yeah, definitely. You feel the momentum change, right after that,” Georgiev said.

Mika Zibanejad started the play, when he sent a seam pass from the left wing circle to the top of the

right wing circle to Panarin, who’d had a tough day, with a truckload of turnovers. Panarin sent a perfect diagonal pass down to the crease for Kreider to tap in easily. The

goal gave the Rangers some muchneeded life, and it was a double blow for Ottawa, which lost goalie Matt Murray to injury on the play. That was key to the Rangers’ comeback, too, Georgiev said.

“When I saw that they were changing the goalies, too — unfortunat­ely Murray got hurt — for us, it felt like that was a good chance to tie the game, with a cold goalie

coming in at the end of the game,” Georgiev said. “And luckily, we played great and then got some huge goals.”

The Rangers caught a break when Jacob Trouba was penalized for tripping Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle. Stutzle was also penalized for

embellishm­ent on the play, meaning instead of being forced to kill a penalty, the Rangers were in a four-on-four situation instead. And Ryan Lindgren tied the score when he crashed the net and jammed in a feed at 15:52.

 ?? SEAN KILPATRICK/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP ?? Senators defenseman Artem Zub looks at his shot as Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev gloves it away in the second period. Georgiev gave up a goal in the first minute.
SEAN KILPATRICK/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP Senators defenseman Artem Zub looks at his shot as Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev gloves it away in the second period. Georgiev gave up a goal in the first minute.

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