NEW YORK – A pair of late second period goals vaulted the New York Rangers past the Ottawa Senators 4-2 in game one of their Eastern Conference quarter final on Thursday night.
With the score standing at 1-0 Rangers late in the second, the Senators were pressing hard for an equalizer. New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist turned the Ottawa shooters away repeatedly to allow the Rangers to cling to their one-goal advantage.
However, a goal from Marian Gaborik with three minutes and 36 seconds left in the period, followed by a power play marker from Brian Boyle with only 53.8 seconds remaining in the middle frame, sealed the deal for New York. The Rangers went on to a 4-2 victory, taking the series lead in the process.
“A huge part of playoff hockey is momentum swings, and I hope we learned our lesson early on this season that, OK, we settle ourselves down, we didn’t get hurt, our goalie was really good at that time, and then we found a way,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said to the New York Daily News after the game.
The Rangers used a goal from Brad Richards early in the third period to go up 4-0, before the Senators scored twice later in the third to make the score respectable.
“They played better than us in the rest of the second there, and then obviously we’re down three,” Senators defenseman Sergei Gonchar told NHL.com after the game. “I think they did a better job on their forecheck than we did on ours, and forcing turnovers. That’s the difference. We made some mistakes in our end. We weren’t as opportunistic either.”
Rangers captain Ryan Callahan scored a first period goal for New York, while Daniel Alfredsson and Erik Condra scored for the Senators. Rangers winger Artem Anisimov aided his team’s cause with two assists.
Lundqvist made 30 saves to pick up the win in net for New York, while Craig Anderson stopped 27 shots in a losing effort for Ottawa.
Game two of the best-of-seven series goes Saturday night in New York.
Contact Darcy.MacRae@prohockeynews.com
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