Rangers Vs. Senators Recap: Rangers Make It Eight In A Row, Defeat Senators 2-1

The New York Rangers are becoming accustomed to this winning mindset, and extended their winning streak to eight games with a 2-1 shootout victory over the Ottawa Senators this afternoon. Unlike the last few games, today was an extremely low scoring affair, with both goaltenders standing on their heads all throughout the game. Henrik Lundqvist is making these sprawling stick saves an every game occurrence as of late, and robbed Mike Hoffman early on in the second period.

The Rangers started the game off with a bang, and drew Milan Michalek into taking an early holding penalty. That sent the Rangers to their first power play of the game, and they made the Senators pay for their early mistake. Keith Yandle set the entire play up with a beautiful no-look pass over to Kevin Hayes, who ripped a quick shot towards Craig Andersen. Just prior to the shot hitting the net, Chris Kreider got a piece of the puck and deflected it past Andersen for the power play goal.

It was a huge goal in terms of setting the tone early in the game, and allowed the Rangers to settle in on the road. Unfortunately, the Rangers returned the favor after Jesper Fast took down Chris Neil, and sent the Senators to their first power play of the game. Exactly a minute later, the Senators were able to take advantage of a Ryan McDonagh wipeout and came back on a 5-on-2 rush.

After some pretty passing, Erik Karlsson finished off Mika Zibanejad's pass and ripped a hard shot past Henrik Lundqvist. Following that goal, the scoring wound up coming to an end in regulation, and it turned into an all out goalie duel for the remaining 54 minutes. That eventually sent the game into 3-on-3 overtime, where both teams continued to trade chances at either end of the ice.

However, neither team was able to find the illustrious gaming winning goal, and this game went on to be decided in the shootout. Bobby Ryan started it off with a goal, followed by Craig Andersen shutting down Rick Nash on a backhand move. Then it was Lundqvist standing tall by denying Kyle Turris, which allowed Mats Zuccarello to knot up the game at 1-1.

Lundqvist followed up the second round with another big save coming on Mika Zibanejad, which left the game winning goal on Dan Boyle's stick. Boyle finished the game by beating Andersen high over the blocker side, and gave the Rangers their eighth straight victory. The Rangers will have a quick turnaround, as they will be right back in action tomorrow night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.