Rangers post a stinker in Ottawa, fall to Senators 6-2
The New York Rangers failed to score the first goal of the game for the third straight game on Tuesday. But unlike the previous two contests, New York was unable to overcome those deficits.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Brady Tkachuk each scored twice in a 6-2 victory that snapped the Rangers’ three-game winning streak.
“They took advantage of our sloppy play,” Mika Zibanejad lamented. “It’s just overall not a good game.”
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Ottawa Senators 6 vs New York Rangers 2
Ottawa led 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals from Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux before Artemi Panarin’s power play goal 39 seconds into the middle frame got the Rangers on the board.
Former — and possibly future — Ranger Tarasenko got the hosts back up by 2 with a beautiful shot that beat Igor Shesterkin over the glove at 5:13. But a K’Andre Miller goal 22 seconds later reestablished the one-goal deficit for the Rangers. It was Miller’s third goal in the last four games.
Things went downhill from there and the Rangers never recovered. Ottawa scored twice more in the middle period, including another from Tkachuck, and never looked back.
A 1:25 two-man advantage for the Rangers early in the third period proved futile. It not only failed to score but didn’t even generate a shot on goal.
Tarasenko added his second of the night with an empty net tally at 17:10.
“We’ll take a look to see what’s happening and make the proper adjustments,” Jacob Trouba stated. “The odd-man rushes are something we can do better. It’s something we’ll address moving forward.”
New York was shoddy defensively, continuing its trend of surrendering odd-man rushes. But when they needed a save, Shesterkin was unable to bail his team out. He finished with 30 saves and has allowed three goals or more in four of his last six starts.
New York, already down Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, lost Barclay Goodrow in the first period after taking a puck to the face.
I think we need to do a better job defensively,” coach Peter Laviolette remarked. “There’s definitely things we did tonight that didn’t give us a chance to be successful. They’re easy things to fix… but we have to have better reads coming out of their zone. You have to work hard and work smart.”
The Rangers return to action Saturday in Washington against the Capitals.
Rangers Notes
- Igor Shesterkin stopped 30 of 35 shots
- Artemi Panarin registered his 16th goal of the season
- K’Andre Miller has 4 points in his last 4 games (3 goals, 1 assists)
New York is off tomorrow and will return to practice on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. ET. Then they will head to Washington to take on the Caps with a 7:00 p.m. ET puck drop.
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