Rangers beat Senators to snap two-game losing streak
The Rangers' Marc Staal celebrates his first-period goal against the Senators with his teammates at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
In the battle of a resistible force versus a movable object, the Rangers took advantage of a struggling Ottawa team and ended their losing streak at two games with a 4-2 victory over the Senators on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Ottawa (9-12-3) lost its fourth consecutive game. It was the front end of a home-and-home between the teams. They play again Thursday in Ontario.
Lias Andersson’s first goal of the season, an ugly one in which the puck went in off his backside, broke a 1-1 tie at 3:26 of the third period. Chris Kreider’s 13th goal — on a pretty two-on-one pass from Filip Chytil — gave the Rangers (13-10-2, 28 points) a 3-1 lead at 8:18.
Mark Stone’s second goal of the game made it 3-2 at 17:17, but Mika Zibanejad’s unassisted empty-net goal with 1:39 left settled the matter.
The win, combined with the Islanders’ loss to the Washington Capitals, moved the Rangers into third place in the Metropolitan Division, if you’re tracking that sort of thing at this juncture.
Entering the game, the Senators had allowed 100 goals in 23 games, the most allowed by any team in the league, but the Rangers had difficulty breaking through until Andersson crashed the net as Ryan Strome fired a shot that Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson stopped with his blocker pad. With Andersson standing in the crease, the puck bounced off his backside and dropped into the net to put the Rangers ahead 2-1.
Ottawa challenged the goal, suggesting it was goaltender interference on the part of Andersson, but it stood up after review.
“That might be the ugliest goal I’ve ever scored,’’ said Andersson, the first of two first-round picks in 2017 by the Rangers.
“We’re not drawing pictures,’’ Rangers coach David Quinn said when asked to talk about the aesthetics of Andersson’s goal. “And that’s, you know, we need to get goals like that. I know there was suspense as to whether it was going to count or not, but I thought it was very similar to the one that was allowed [after Quinn’s coach’s challenge] by them, so we were pretty confident it was going to be a goal.’’
The Senators’ first goal, by Stone at 13:03 of the first period, also survived a coach’s challenge by Quinn and tied the score at 1-1. The Rangers thought Colin White had interfered with Henrik Lundqvist (29 saves).
Marc Staal had put the Rangers in front with his first goal of the season, at 10:55 of the first period. It was a rare offensive contribution from the Rangers’ second-longest-tenured player (behind Lundqvist).
“I just think he’s really had a good year defensively,’’ Quinn said. “He’s a calming influence on our team, in the locker room and on the ice. He works hard, he wants to get better — I’ve just liked his year. I really have.
“Has every night been a great night? No. But he hasn’t had many bad ones.’’
Quinn had the uncomfortable task of having to game-plan against his former star at Boston University, 6-3, 196-pound winger Brady Tkachuk, who was the fourth overall pick in the NHL Draft this past summer.
Tkachuk, who entered the game with seven goals and four assists in 12 games, had two assists against the Rangers, and his immediate success came as no surprise to Quinn.
“He’s going to be a big-time player,’’ he said. “Everybody talks about his size and his strength and his determination, but he’s got a lot of skill, too. He’s got great hands, he passes the puck well, he can shoot . . . I’m not surprised.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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