The New York Rangers faced a desperate Ottawa Senators looking to edge their way into the playoffs with a possible win over the top team in the league.
FIRST PERIOD: The New York Rangers were playing keep away with the Ottawa Senators, controlling the puck for a heavy portion of the first twenty minutes. And this was all with the Rangers lineup missing Kevin Klein to a broken arm, Mats Zuccarello for general body soreness, and Rick Nash and Marc Staal for maintenance. As a result, Ryan Bourque and Chris Summers were subbed in on the third line and third D pair respectively.
At 8:35, Martin St. Louis was sent to the penalty box for holding, putting the Sens on a much needed power play. Despite the man-advantage, the Rangers absolutely killed the penalty, holding the Sens down to a whopping zero shots on goal.
New York Rangers
Back at even strength, Mika Zibanejad shoveled a puck past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist but it wasn’t until after running into the goaltender. The goal was waived off immediately, but Lundqvist was left down on the ice in pain. Zibanejad had accidentally fallen with all of his weight onto Lundqvist’s left leg and the King looked to be in some serious pain. Some very scary thoughts then crept into mind: Is Lundqvist out for playoffs? Is Talbot playoff ready? Will the Rangers have a fighting chance now with their King out of the race with them? But thankfully Hank wasn’t down for too long. He got back up on his skates, tested his weight on his left leg and went right back to work in net.
With Zibanejad in the box for goalie interference, the Rangers got a few good looks on the power play. Goalie Andrew “The Hamburglar” Hammond was much better tonight than in his last performance against the Rangers. In that game he was chased from the net after Tanner Glass scored a goal. But tonight, Hammond appeared to be 100% the goalie he was touted to be as he denied the opponent any goals.
These twenty minutes ended in a stalemate, 0-0, with the Rangers up on shots, 9-6.
SECOND PERIOD: Past the halfway mark, Sens rookie Mark Stone hit a hard rising shot, yet Lundqvist was able to block it with his shoulder for a big save. At the other end of the rink, Hammond blocked two quick shots in a row, scrambling on the ice for a huge pad save on Kevin Hayes.
Late in the period, Stone played the puck behind the net and slid it under Rangers D-man Dan Girardi to the crease where Clarke MacArthur (16) buried the opening goal at 17:31.
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Moments later, Sens’ Kyle Turris won the face-off and Eric Gryba fired from the point. Lundqvist got a piece of it off the glove but couldn’t control the puck as it dropped into the net for the Sens’ second goal at 18:35, credited to Turris (24).
The Sens almost cashed in a third straight goal in the last minute of the period when Condra skated out on a breakaway. Hank stayed with him and Condra lost the puck on his backhand as it went wide.
The period ended with Ottawa up on shots this time, 8-5, and with the 2-0 lead.
THIRD PERIOD: The Sens were eager to seal a win as they went hard to the net early and poked away at the puck with chance after chance, the Rangers goalie keeping up with save after save. Hank lost his stick, but tracked the puck like a hawk for another two outstanding saves. It was an impressive sequence to say the least, resting any doubt that he was going to be okay after the incident from the first period.
The Rangers showed they weren’t letting down as Keith Yandle got the puck off the face-off and skated away with it, deking out Erik Karlsson with a fake pass and firing a shot in Hammond’s path, the goaltender gobbling up the puck for a big save.
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Fellow Swede Erik Karlsson then caught Hank in the mask with a hard rising shot, knocking the mask loose. Despite having a rough night, he was okay, only having to shake the mask off to stop play and fix it.
Then with a Rangers empty net, Stepan registered a shot on goal but Hammond controlled the rebound well. Before the end of the game, Jean-Gabriel Pageau (9) collected an empty netter and the Sens were able to grab the win and the first wildcard spot to the playoffs.
I’m sure the Rangers will not lose any sleep over this loss as they had already been awarded the Presidents’ Trophy for having the best record in the league. Plus their infamous rivals, the Boston Bruins, were pushed out of the wildcard space with the Sens’ win. So overall, this was somewhat of a win for both the Sens and the Rangers.
STARS OF THE GAME:
1- Andrew Hammond, 26 saves, 1.00 SV%
2- Clarke MacArthur, 1 goal, 1 assist
3- Kyle Turris, 1 goal, 1 assist
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