KANATA, Ontario _ The Rangers' first visit to Canada this season got off to a tough start when an Ottawa team that the Rangers handled on Monday turned the tables on them Thursday night, grabbing control early and ending the Rangers' two-game winning streak with a 3-0 victory in the Canadian Tire Centre.
Playing somewhat shorthanded because of injuries to forwards Mats Zuccarello and Vladislav Namestnikov, the Rangers had all kinds of problems. They turned the puck over and didn't protect well in front of their net as they were shut out for the second time this season and second time in a week.
The Rangers failed to score against the most defensively-challenged team in the league, and Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson earned his first shutout of the season.
With the loss, the Rangers closed out November with a 9-4-1 record and fell to 13-11-2 (28 points) overall. The two-game trip moves on to Montreal, where the Rangers will play the Canadiens Saturday night.
With Zuccarello (groin strain) and Namestnikov (concussion protocol) not on the trip and only 11 healthy forwards available, the Rangers dressed seven defensemen. And coach David Quinn also mixed up his forward lines, giving No. 1 center (and former Senator) Mika Zibanejad two new wingers in Chris Kreider and Ryan Strome, and bumping left wing Jimmy Vesey up to the second line, with Kevin Hayes and Filip Chytil.
Lias Andersson, who scored his first goal of the season Monday against the Senators, moved up to the third line, on the left of fellow 20-year-old rookie Brett Howden, with veteran Jesper Fast on the right. And defenseman Brendan Smith played right wing on the fourth line, with 20-year-old Tim Gettinger and Steven Fogarty.
But the game was barely two minutes old when the Senators jumped in front on a goal by Drake Batherson, who deflected in a net front feed from Matt Duchene at 2:06. Magnus Paajarvi made it 2-0 at 14:35, after Zibanejad had a chance to clear the zone but didn't, and then turned the puck over, leading to Zack Smith setting up Paajarvi down low for his second goal of the season.
Fast appeared to get one back for the Rangers 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, the play was ruled no goal, and with 12:14 remaining in the period, the Rangers still trailed 2-0. They would fall behind 3-0 at 17:00 of the second when Ryan Dzingel tracked a puck down at the back boards and sent it in front to Batherson, who passed to Duchene for a back door tap-in goal, his 12th of the season.
The game was played cleanly for the most part, with only one penalty being called in the entire game. That was against Tony DeAngelo, and came behind the play, as the Rangers were heading in on a two-on-one break at the other end with 5:12 left in the third period.
