The Ottawa Senators won their first road game since the start of the campaign, and they did it at the Madison Square Garden against the NY Rangers. The guests from the Canadian capital smashed the hosts with 6-2, despite the slow start.
Kaapo Kakko netted for the hosts at 8:47 of the first period, saw four major penalties, and five minor ones. A little bit less than 30 seconds before the goal, the fans saw a fight between Tony DeAngelo and Brendan Lemieux on one side, and JC Beaudin and Mark Borowiecki on other. They all had to go out for five minutes.
But that didn’t calm down the tensions on the ice. The teams continued to be aggressive and brutal, and it seems that such a style suited the guests better.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau prooved that he likes to play against the Rangers. The 27-year old center scored four goals against them in 2017 playoffs, and last night he added two more. He was the first one from the visiting side to beat goalie Alexander Georgiev.
Anthony Duclair couldn’t score from a wraparound, but Pageau was there to correct his miss. With 5:04 left in the first, the Senators realized that they have the momentum over the home team.
“Once we got back, I thought we started putting pucks behind them, started shooting more pucks, started blocking shots, started hitting them,” Pageau said.
The Rangers became very nervous, and at one point they had two players fewer on the ice, which was a perfect situation for the fired-up guests. Brady Tkachuk needs to be credited for both penalties since he forced the officials to punish his rivals. He was harassing the hosts all day long, and eventually, they became rough on him.
Tyler Ennis brought the lead to the Senators with 18:31, and the guests continued to pound early on in the second. Tkachuk assisted to Ron Hainsey for another power-play goal, while Pageau made it 4-1 at 11:43 of the middle frame. Tkachuk himself scored with 5:04 left in the same.
Artemi Panarin decreased the lead of the convincing Senators with one Rangers’ power-play goal.
In the end, Vladislav Namestnikov got his sweet revenge, as the 27-year old center scored against his former club who traded him to Canada previously.
After two straight wins, the Rangers lost at home, although they entered this contest as a massive favorite.
“I don’t know what changed about our mentality, but we got away from it and started cheating the game, didn’t respect our opponent. They had a bit of a pushback,” said Rangers’ forward Chris Kreider.
New York (5-6-1) hosts the Detroit Red Wings this Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Senators(4-8-1) stays in the Big Apple, as they face the Islanders already this Tuesday. After that, DJ Smith’s boys are going back home to play against the LA Kings on Thursday before hosting the Hurricanes on another back-to-back night.
