GREENBURGH, N.Y. _ In overtime of Game 2, Rick Nash came out from behind the right post and had Senators goalie Craig Anderson out of position. Nash had the puck _ and the game _ on the stick.
But as Nash tried to shoot, forward Kyle Turris got his stick blade down and deflected the puck wide.
The Senators would win, 6-5, early in Saturday's second overtime in Ottawa, and the veteran winger, who will turn 33 next month, was asked Monday if he had replayed the scene in his mind.
"Only a thousand times," Nash said with a grin. "Not too much. I mean, it happened so fast. I've got to go backhand to forehand and when I moved it, his stick was just there."
After practice, Nash _ who skated on a line with Derek Stepan and rookie Jimmy Vesey _ said to have Sunday away from the rink was a blessing.
"It was a pretty emotional game, an emotional loss, too," he said, "so to have an extra day to kind of get better physically, and mentally as well, is huge."
Nash's two goals and three points and his all-around play, driving the net and killing penalties, helped lift the Rangers past Montreal in six games. He has just one assist against Ottawa, but in eight playoff games, Nash has 30 shots, third in the league behind Washington's Alex Ovechkin (34) and St. Louis' Vladimir Tarasenko (32).
"We've had opportunities to win both games. We just haven't been able to close the job," said Nash, who must contribute if the Rangers are to climb past the Senators, who hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
For a player who has scored 40 or more goals three times, and 30 or more five other times, Nash had earned a reputation for not producing enough in the playoffs, with just five goals in his first 41 games, in one postseason with Columbus and his first two in New York. Since then, he has nine in the last 32 games, all with the Rangers.
"He got an opportunity to win us the game Saturday, but had Turris put his stick there," coach Alain Vigneault said. "I think Rick's working extremely hard; we've made some adjustments on the power play and penalty-kill. The PK last game was good, and on the power play, people will look at stats and say they were 0-for-3, but we scored two goals when their guy was stepping on the ice."
The immediate task is to score a few on Anderson, said Nash, who collected 23 goals in 67 games this year. "He's a big goalie, we're trying to get bodies in front of him; but we've also got to do a bit better job in front of our net, boxing out and with forwards coming down and taking sticks," to limit deflections.
Said Vigneault: "So far, they've made one more defensive play, one more offensive play in each game, that's why they're up 2-0. We need to be the team that needs to make those."
