Rangers blow 4-1 lead in shootout loss

In a game of momentum swings, the team on the last roll wins. That was the case Saturday afternoon as the Rangers, ahead by three goals with less than 11 minutes to play in regulation, lost to the Senators, 5-4, at Madison Square Garden after a shootout.

"We started sitting back and they got the momentum," said Brad Richards, who had two goals and an assist to help provide the 4-1 lead. "We never got our feet under us again, and we didn't pressure them like we were doing earlier. This league is just too good -- you can't stop playing."

The Senators (6-5-0), who have their share of last-period comebacks this season, didn't stop skating and turned up the power. Jason Spezza scored at 9:18 and 12:49 of the third period, the second on a power play after Wojtek Wolski was sent off for an "illegal check to the head" after Daniel Alfredsson skated into him.

Milan Michalek tied it at 4-4 with 2:50 left, getting a stick on his bouncing rebound and chipping the puck past Henrik Lundqvist, who made 36 saves. Michalek beat Lundqvist on a high backhander for the lone goal in three rounds of the shootout as the Rangers fell to 0-1-1 at home.

"After the second goal -- and Ottawa has done this all year long, come back -- the way to switch momentum to is have forechecking shifts. We had a number more tonight in a row," said Rangers coach John Tortorella, who thought about calling a timeout but didn't. "That's what you need to do, and we didn't. We ended up taking a penalty and then we froze a bit."

Lundqvist said that with the Rangers' two power-play goals on the same major penalty on the Senators' Zenon Konopka for boarding Artem Anisimov at 4:05 of the second period, the energy at the Garden changed. "We had a great stretch and then it changed again," he said. "We have to fight for our bounces."

Ryan Callahan, who notched his third goal of the season, and Richards scored the man-advantage goals 1:20 apart. In the third period, Marian Gaborik scored his team-leading fifth of the season and Richards tallied again at 8:05 for the 4-1 margin that disintegrated.

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"Everyone has to hold their positions and be confident out there," said Gaborik, who also had two assists. "We just have to learn from it."

The next test for the 3-3-3 Rangers will be Monday night when they host the San Jose Sharks.

It was the first game this season that Richards and Gaborik had not started as linemates, as Tortorella separated them to try to give the team -- which had scored only 16 goals in eight games -- an offensive jolt. Although they scored four times, their most since a 4-0 win in Vancouver on Oct. 18, they couldn't stem the tide when it counted.

"We played in spurts," Tortorella said. "Longer spurts than we have played, but I'm not dwelling on the bad stuff. I think some of the details of our game are still weak."

The turnaround was particularly bitter for Callahan, who had a team-high five of the 28 shots, had four more attempts blocked and stopped three Senators shots.

"To have a game like that," Callahan said, "where we're scoring goals after struggling a bit, and controlling the game, to lose it in the last 10 minutes, it's frustrating, it definitely is."