Ottawa Senators Shutdown New York Rangers In Must Win Game

Game Recap

After a very slow start which saw the Rangers take a quick 7-0 shot lead in the 1st period, the Senators calmed down and found their legs. The Sens looked to take the lead midway through the 1st period  but the goal was called back with a goaltender interference call against Mika Zibanejad as the Rangers would out-shoot the Senators 9-6.

The 2nd period saw the Senators come out with some determination and speed as they were able to keep the Rangers shots to the outside which made life easy for Andrew Hammond. After a flurry by the Rangers where they pinned the Senators in their own zone for a solid two minutes, Kevin Hayes had a chance to put the Rangers ahead while Hammond seemed down and out, but as we are now all accustomed to seeing the Hamburglar style of play, Andrew was able to kick his legs out to rob Hayes of a pure goal.

More from Editorials

• Ottawa Senators: Something’s Got to Give
• Hot Pierre Summer 2.0? Let’s Talk About The Ottawa Senators Offseason So Far!
• EXCLUSIVE: Making Moments With Senators Forward Egor Sokolov
• Joonas Korpisalo: The Solution To The Senators’ Goaltending Problem
• Ottawa Senators: To Build Or Demolish? New Arena Discussion

The Senators were able to get the change and march down the ice to take the lead on a slap shot from Clarke MacArthur at 17:31 off a pretty pass by Mark Stone from behind the net. Kyle Turris followed that up by tipping an Eric Gryba point shot 1:04 later to give the Sens the 2-0 lead going into intermission.

As the 3rd period started, the Rangers began pushing the play and held the Senators to no shots for the first eight minutes of the period. Hammond continued to make the big saves at the right time and looked as though the Rangers might not beat him all night.

With just over three minutes left in the 3rd period the Rangers pulled Henrik Lundqvist but it was not to be. Jean-Gabriel Pageau was able to seal the win for the Senators with his first road goal of the season into the empty net.

Andrew finished with 26 saves for his 3rd career SO to improve to 19-1-2.

Notes And Observation

• The Senators improve to 20-3-3 and for the time being move into the 7th spot in the Eastern Conference, pushing the Pittsburgh Penguins out while the Penguins host the New York Islanders tomorrow night.
• Hammond once again was a stud. His save on Hayes will likely be the play of night on the morning highlight shows.
• Turris, MacArthur and Stone continue to roll as they’ve contributed to 7 of the Senators last 11 games. Turris scored his 24th goal of the season getting him within two of his career high.  MacArthur has quietly put up 9 points in 8 games since returning from a concussion.
• Stone has an 8 game point streak and is 3rd in the league in points since January 1st. He has registered 62 total points, 1 more than Daniel Alfredsson had during his Calder Trophy winning rookie season. There is no doubt that he should be a finalist for the Calder Trophy.
• Bobby Ryan was once again a no show and for Senators fan it is starting to get a bit old. Lets hoping that he can find his touch if the Senators find themselves playing hockey next week.
• Keith Yandle played in his 83 games of the season tonight. Last player to do that was David Legwand in the 2013-14 Season.
• Although New York’s head coach Alain Vigneault kept Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Marc Staal out of the line up, the Rangers still had great puck pressure and you can definitely see how this team has been considered the favourite to win Lord Stanley.

Up Next

With tonight’s win coupled with Boston’s massive loss in Florida, the Senators are now two points up on the Bruins with both teams having one game remaining. Boston will visit Tampa Bay Saturday night while the Senators push for the playoffs will come down to one final game on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

If the Senators can come out of Philadelphia with at least one point they will punch their ticket to the playoffs even before Boston and Tampa Bay have hit the ice. The Senators have gone 1-0-1 against the Flyers this season with their win coming in the last game on March 15th in Ottawa.

This is an all or nothing game so expect the Senators to hold nothing back. Enjoy your friday night, but don’t make it a late one as the Senators regular season comes to a finale Saturday afternoon with a 12:30pm ET start. Hopefully it won’t be their last game!GO SENS GO!