Clearly a 16 day break for the New York Rangers was just what they needed to continue their winning ways as they defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 Tuesday in Ottawa.
Ottawa was clearly the more motivated team at the start of the game as they scored their one and only goal of the game only 3:51 into the first period off a slap shot that rocketed past goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. The remaining of the first went by without much action to speak of.
After getting a little pep talk from head coach John Tortorella in the first intermission, the Rangers came out steaming in the second as they scored the tying goal after 22 whole seconds of second period action. It was scored by U.S. Olympic superstar Ryan Callahan.
In fact, the second period went into the books after the Rangers put four goals past Senators goaltender Brian Elliot. After Callahan scored the first, Brandon Dubinsky joined the party scoring the go-ahead goal at 15:44 of the second. Not long afterwards, Callahan decided he wasn’t finished on the night as he scored his second of the night at 16:56. But wait, there’s more! At 17:46 of the period, Sean Avery scored the Rangers fourth and final goal of the night. In fact, this onslaught of black rubber rocketing past Elliot was enough for Senators head coach Cory Clouston to pull him for their backup goaltender Pascal Leclaire.
“We talked about it before the game, it’s one game at a time in a 20-game season,” Tortorella said to newyorkrangers.com. “We have to get a mindset of grinding, playing defense first. And I thought we did a really good job of that. Our offense came off of that.”
The Rangers went into the Olympic break winning three of four allowing them to keep pace with an incredibly tight Eastern Conference playoff push. With this win, they are now tied in points with the Boston Bruins for eighth place in the conference. They’ll now return to the Garden to welcome the Pittsburgh Penguins.
