Igor Shesterkin got into it with Brady Tkachuk and extended his shutout streak to 164 minutes.
The Ottawa Senators' recent hot streak came crashing down on Tuesday night with a 5-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves and extended his shutout streak to 164:03. Alexis Lafrenière led the Rangers with a goal and an assist, while the Sens were shut out for the fourth time in ten games.
The loss is the first in regulation for Ottawa in the past seven games (5-1-1) and may have been a costly one for a few reasons.
Center Josh Norris fell to the ice on his chin and left the game. He briefly returned and seemed in good spirits but didn’t come out for the third period. Sens head coach Travis Green, who despises answering questions about injuries, told TSN 1200 radio after the game, "I'll know more (on Wednesday)."
Defenseman Nick Jensen also seemed to get injured with over four minutes left in the game, getting his skates tied up with a Ranger forechecker. He went off favoring his left leg and didn’t return.
It was also costly because the Rangers are going to be one of the teams pushing the Senators down the stretch and they've been pouring it on lately. They improved to 6-0-3 in their past nine games and moved to within two points of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Senators just didn’t have it in this one—not the team, nor starter Leevi Meriläinen, who’s been fantastic this season. Meriläinen was chased from the game after being beaten four times on 16 shots, but only two of them counted.
The only one who showed up with their A-game was the Sens’ video team, which successfully challenged two of the Ranger goals on Meriläinen to keep the game close—at least for a little while.
The most memorable moment of the game came in the third period when Brady Tkachuk bumped into Shesterkin, and all hell broke loose.
Somehow, the Sens ended up shorthanded out of that mess.
New York’s Sam Carrick had an unlucky night. First, he lost a skate blade and had to crawl half the length of the ice to get back to the bench. A few shifts later, he scored what appeared to be the game-opening goal, but with Matt Rempe a foot offside, it was easily overturned by challenge. Late in the game, amusingly, Carrick lost a blade again and had to make the identical crawl back to the bench.
The Senators are back at it on Thursday night at TD Garden with another huge game against the Boston Bruins.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
18:48 Alexis Lafreniere (13) Assists: Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox
2nd Period
1:50 Arthur Kaliyev (2) Assists: Urho Vaakanainen), Braden Schneider
3rd Period
3:34 Matt Rempe (1) Assists: Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick
9:01 Artemi Panarin (20) (Power Play) Assists: Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad
9:57 Will Cuylle (13) (Power Play) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere, K'Andre Miller
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUauIv2Yl18[/embed]