NEW YORK _ In the battle of a resistible force versus a moveable object, the Rangers took advantage of a struggling Ottawa Senators team Monday to end their two-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory at Madison Square Garden in the front end of a home-and-home between the teams. They play each other again Thursday in Kanata, Ontario.
Lias Andersson's first goal of the season, an ugly thing that saw the puck literally go in off his backside, broke a 1-1 tie at 3:26 of the third period and Chris Kreider's 13th goal of the season, finishing a pretty two-on-one pass from Filip Chytil, gave the Rangers (13-10-2, 28 points) a 3-1 lead. Mark Stone scored for Ottawa, but Mika Zibanejad scored an empty net goal with 1:39 remaining to settle the matter.
Ottawa lost for the fourth consecutive time and fell to 9-12-3 on the season. The win, combined with the Islanders' loss to the Washington Capitals, moved the Rangers back into third place in the Metropolitan Division, if you're tracking those sorts of things at this juncture.
The Senators had allowed 100 goals against in their 23 games coming in, the most goals allowed by any team in the league, but the Rangers had difficulty breaking through until Andersson, the first of two first round picks in 2017 by the Rangers, crashed the net as Ryan Strome fired a shot that Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson stopped with his blocker pad. But 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 the goal stood up after review.
Rangers coach David Quinn had the no doubt, uncomfortable task of having to game plan against his former star at Boston University, Brady Tkachuk, the 6-3, 196-pound winger who was the fourth pick overall in the NHL draft this summer by the Senators. Tkachuk entered the game with seven goals and four assists in 12 games played this season, and his immediate success came as no surprise to Quinn.
"He's a great player, he's a great kid _ he's going to be a big-time player in our league," Quinn said of Tkachuk. "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 it, so, no, I'm not surprised."
Tkachuk helped the Senators tie the game at 1 in the first period, after Marc Staal's first goal of the year had put the Rangers in front at 10:55. But just 2:08 later, the Senators were even. Joining the rush late, Tkachuk took a diagonal backhand pass from Mark Stone at the right point and fired a shot/pass toward Colin White that White redirected off Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist. And while Lundqvist lay sprawled on the ice, tangled up with White, Stone swooped in and swept the rebound into the net at 13:03. Quinn challenged the play, suggesting it was goaltender interference, but after review, the goal stood.
The teams played a choppy first period, with Lundqvist first having a broken skate blade that delayed the game, then problems with his mask. At one point, the strap on his mask broke, and Lundqvist took the mask off, which should have stopped play immediately. The officials didn't notice, though, and play didn't stop. Ottawa actually shot the puck into the net, while Lundqvist was standing in the crease without a mask, which made the goaltender very hot at the officials. The "goal" did not count.
