Rangers Vs. Senators: New York Rangers Make It Five Straight Against Ottawa
The New York Rangers won their fifth straight game tonight against the Ottawa Senators, 3-2. The newly named GAS (Gaborik, Anisimov, and Stepan) line combined for all three Ranger goals tonight, and led them to the victory. The game started off with a bang, and had tons of back and forth action throughout the first period. Just 2:50 into the game, Sean Avery and Zenon Konopka dropped the gloves. Bad blood has been boiling over since these two teams last met, with the questionable hit on Artem Anisimov and the Wojtek Wolski elbow on Daniel Alfredsson.
In the second period, Milan Michalek got the Senators on the board off a wicked wrist shot, that beat Lundqvist over the shoulder. Less than a minute later, the Rangers got back on the board quick off a slick pass from Derek Stepan, to Marian Gaborik. This line has been clicking the last three games, and are really starting to put up the numbers. The same line struck again just two minutes later, but this time Derek Stepan banged home the rebound.
However, it is also worth noting that Artem Anisimov was a key factor in all of the goals scored tonight. His strong fore-check played a large role in the development of the second Rangers goal. He also made a strong play to the net, and forced Anderson to kicked out a rebound.
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Following the Rangers goals, the Senators tried to get their game back together and Jared Cowen dropped the gloves with Andre Deveaux. Cowen was also wearing a visor during this fight, and failed to take off his helmet before the fight. However, Deveaux still found a way to win, and caught Cowen in the chin with a huge punch.
The GAS line struck again with Marian Gaborik netting his second goal of the game. Anisimov played another huge role by chipping the puck off the boards to spring Gabby and Stepan up ice. Gaborik let go a quick wrist shot that beat Anderson over his right shoulder.
It didn't take long for the Senators to get back into the game, with a goal coming from Nick Foligno. This goal was caused by a bad breakdown defensively by Jeff Woywitka and Steve Eminger, which left Foligno wide open in the slot.
Henrik Lundqvist had another strong performance in net tonight, and led the Rangers to their fifth straight victory. Some key saves came in the final minute, when the Senators applied some serious pressure, but were unable to convert.
To finish off, here are tonight's three stars of the game, along with the recipient of the Broadway
