OTTAWA, Ontario – It took Kyle Turris four games to score his first goal of the 2012 NHL playoffs, but he couldn’t have picked a better time to snap out of a mini scoring slump.
Turris’ goal at 2:42 of overtime lifted the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers in game four of the teams’ Eastern Conference quarterfinal. The series is now tied at two games apiece, with game five going Friday night in New York.
“I’ve just lived every kid’s Stanley Cup dream,” Turris told the Canadian Press. “It was a great play by (Jim) O’Brien. It was kind of a long shift in our zone and right when he got it I was actually thinking of changing, but I saw it was a two-on-two. I just tried to use the (defenseman) as a screen to get it on net.”
Turris took a pass from O’Brien just inside the blue line before firing a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that sailed over the glove of Rangers’ goalie Hendrik Lundqvist and into the top right hand corner of the net.
“A heck of a shot, and a huge goal for us,” Senators center Jason Spezza told the Ottawa Citizen.
The Senators got off to a slow start in the contest, falling behind 2-0 after the Rangers scored a pair of power play goals early in the first period. Anton Stralman got New York on the board just 49 seconds into the game, with Ryan Callahan putting the Rangers up 2-0 at 6:10 of the opening period.
The Senators regrouped in the second frame, using goals from Milan Michalek at 7:04 and Sergei Gonchar at 17:50 to tie the game at two. A scoreless third period set the stage for the overtime winner by Turris.
“One thing about this time of year, is you can actually learn a lot about the players, and the players can learn a lot about themselves,” Ottawa coach Paul MacLean told NHL.com. “I think we have some players that are really learning some really important things about themselves. I think the play of Kyle Turris has risen as the circumstances have dictated it here. I think his game has really risen.”
Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards each had two assists in the game for New York, while Lundqvist was once again solid between the pipes, making 28 saves. The Rangers’ goalie insists the overtime loss won’t leave the team feeling deflated heading into game five of the series.
“I said after the second game we didn’t expect this to be easy,” Lundqvist told the New York Times. “So we’ll go back and work on our game.”
O’Brien, Gonchar, Spezza, Matt Carkner, Chris Neil and Nick Foligno registered assists for Ottawa in the win. Goalie Craig Anderson stopped 31 shots to earn the win in Ottawa’s crease.
Contact Darcy.MacRae@prohockeynews.com
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