Rangers shut out by Senators in Ottawa
Senators goaltender Craig Anderson keeps his eye on the puck as teammate Thomas Chabot and the Rangers' Jimmy Vesey look for a rebound during the first period of a game Thursday in Ottawa. Credit: AP/Fred Chartrand
KANATA, Ontario — The Rangers’ first visit to Canada this season got off to a rough start.
An Ottawa team that the Rangers had handled Monday turned the tables on them Thursday night, grabbing control early and ending the Blueshirts’ winning streak at two games with a 3-0 victory at the Canadian Tire Centre.
“When things didn’t go well, we made them worse,’’ Rangers coach David Quinn said. “Obviously, during the course of a game, there are going to be some stretches where you don’t play well, and you hope to make them better. You hope to stop it and recover and be mentally tough enough to get your wits about you and regroup. And we just never did it. We just got worse and worse as the game went on.’’
Playing shorthanded because of injuries to forwards Mats Zuccarello and Vladislav Namestnikov, the Rangers turned the puck over too many times and didn’t protect well in front of their net. They were shut out for the second time this season and second time in a week, having lost to the Flyers, 4-0, in Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving.
They failed to score against the NHL’s most defensively challenged team. Ottawa (11-12-3) had allowed 107 goals in its first 25 games and had lost to the Rangers, 4-2, on Monday, but Craig Anderson (27 saves) earned his first shutout of the season.
The Rangers ended November 9-4-1 and are 13-11-2 (28 points) overall. The two-game trip moves on to Montreal, where the Rangers will play the Canadiens on Saturday night.
Afterward, the Rangers lamented their performances in road games this season. They are 10-4-0 at Madison Square Garden and 3-7-2 on the road.
“I feel like it’s not just one game, it’s starting to become a road thing, and that’s something we need to adjust and correct real quick,’’ said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 31 saves. “We’ve been playing really well at home. On the road, we need to do the little things really well.’’
Said Chris Kreider, “That Philly game — I know we’re a young team, but we’ve got to figure out how to play on the road. There’s no road way to play, there’s no home way to play — there’s a right way to play. So especially on the road, you’ve got to rely on your structure, rely on each other, skate with each other and play real simple.
“We talked about it between periods. It’s getting extended in our shifts, turning pucks over when we should lay them in the corner. We’ve got to have a little more of that snarl in our game when we go on the road.’’
Drake Batherson scored 2:06 into the first period, deflecting in a net-front feed from Matt Duchene. Magnus Paajarvi made it 2-0 at 14:35. After Mika Zibanejad failed to clear the zone and turned the puck over, Zack Smith set up Paajarvi down low for his second goal of the season.
The Rangers’ Jesper Fast appeared to get one back with 12:14 left in the second period when he crashed the net and shoveled a shot that Anderson saved. But Fast, as he was falling into the crease, appeared to knock Anderson back into the net. The puck crossed the line and the red light went on, but after a video review, it was ruled no goal.
Duchene added a back-door tap-in goal, off a pass from Batherson, to make it 3-0 at 17:00 of the second period.
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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