Rangers winners in seven

Top seed eliminates Senators, will face the Capitals in next round.

Rangers defensemen Marc Staal and Dan Girardi scored 4:18 apart in the second period, Henrik Lundqvist made 26 saves and top-seeded New York eliminated the pesky eighthseeded Ottawa Senators from the playoffs with a 2-1 victory in Game 7 on Thursday night.

Staal broke the scoreless deadlock, and Girardi gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead with his first career NHL playoff goal. Lundqvist allowed Daniel Alfredsson’s power-play goal in the second but stood tall the rest of the way to send the Rangers into an Eastern Conference second-round matchup with the seventh-seeded Washington Capitals.

The Rangers hadn’t hosted a Game 7 since their Stanley Cup victory over Vancouver in 1994, but they stayed perfect at home in deciding games — winning their fourth. New York is 4-5 overall in Game 7, and the Senators dropped to 0-5.

Lundqvist withstood tons of pressure from the Senators, who spent most of the closing 5 minutes in the Rangers’ end.

The win wasn’t secure until Sergei Gonchar tripped Carl Hagelin as he skated toward the empty net with 36.2 seconds remaining.

Craig Anderson was nearly as good in the Ottawa net, making 27 saves.

New York rallied from a 3-2 series deficit for just the second time, building off the momentum of its 3-2 victory in Ottawa on Monday night in Game 6.

Just like in that one, when the Rangers scored three goals in the second period, New York used the middle period to take over. While waiting for their big guns — Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards — to spark the offense, a pair of defensemen stepped up to get the Rangers going.

Rookie Chris Kreider forced a turnover and got the puck into the Ottawa end. Ryan Callahan nudged it ahead to Derek Stepan, who sent a pass from the right circle to the left circle to Staal for his first goal of the series 4:46 into the second.

Staal, limited to 46 regular-season games because of the lingering effects of a concussion sustained last season, thrust his hands up in celebration when his shot beat Anderson. Staal had only two goals in the regular season.

It didn’t take long for Madison Square Garden to erupt in cheers again.

Rangers forward Brandon Prust had the puck knocked off his stick, but teammate Brandon Dubinsky was there to get it and smack it into the slot to Girardi, who wound up for a hard slap shot just a few feet from the crease and slammed it past Anderson at 9:04.

Just when the nervous towelwaving fans began to feel confident the Rangers would survive, Alfredsson gave the Senators a big boost and brought back the tension.

Ottawa went on its second power play when Michael Del Zotto was called for crosschecking nemesis Chris Neil in front of the net. Alfredsson, who missed three games in the series after an elbow from Hagelin in Game 2 gave him a concussion, took a pass above the left circle from Chris Phillips and one-timed a shot past Lundqvist with 8:26 left in the second to bring the Senators back within a goal.

In each of the previous four years, the Washington Capitals found themselves on the wrong side of the playoff equation no matter how high a wave they rode into the postseason.

By knocking out the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins in seven games, the Capitals took a turn playing the role of clutch performers and spoilers to a higher seed. This time, Washington was the team that didn’t waver from its simple, defensive brand of hockey.

“We needed to win a series like this, this franchise needed it,” General Manager George Mcphee said. “I don’t know how we did it, but it was nice to see that go in. We needed it.”

Owner Ted Leonsis acknowledged that when the team hired Dale Hunter as coach it took a calculated risk in switching to a defense-first mindset that was the opposite of the high-flying, offensive firepower that helped the team grow in popularity.

They’ve proven more than capable of executing the system, which frustrated the Bruins on a nightly basis, but the larger test will be whether the system helps Washington crack its invisible playoff ceiling: The team has not advanced to the conference finals since 1998.

One team has a goalie who plays the crease like a spider in a web, multiple players who can score and a hard-hitting, defense-first mentality.

The other team … well, it’s pretty much the same thing.

After bogging down two of the NHL’S most skilled teams in the opening round, the Nashville Predators and Phoenix Coyotes face off in what will be a two-of-a-kind Western Conference semifinal.

Game 1 is tonight in the desert and the only way to tell the teams apart will be by their jersey colors.

“We really are mirror images of each other,” Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said. “We play a similar style, very good defense and work ethic, and you don’t get a free night with Nashville. They’ll be tough games.”

The Coyotes had a raucous ride into the second round of the playoffs, re-energizing a fan base that had become hockey complacent over the past few seasons. Phoenix capped it by surviving a brutal series against Chicago, mucking it up against the fleet Blackhawks to win in six games, their first trip out of the opening round since 1987.

Nashville finished ahead of Phoenix in the regular season — six more wins, seven more points — but was fourth in the West because the Coyotes won the Pacific Division.

Parity has taken over the playoffs.

Headed into Thursday night’s deciding Eastern Conference games, Boston, Vancouver, Detroit and Chicago were already out of the postseason.

Those powerhouse teams gone, the chase for the Stanley Cup is as open as it’s been in years, with teams like Phoenix, Nashville and St. Louis still in the hunt. The playoffs have a new vibe this season and Lord Stanley’s coveted cup could end up in a place like Nashville or Glendale, Ariz.

One of the biggest surprises is the Los Angeles Kings. After squeaking into the playoffs, they took down the Western Conference’s top-seeded team, knocking out the Vancouver Canucks in a surprisingly easy five games.