A Tale of Two Periods: Blueshirts’ Comeback Falls Short in 7-4 Loss to Senators
The Blueshirts found out the hard way on Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre that you simply cannot spot a team a multi-goal lead and expect to escape with two points. Despite a relentless push that showed plenty of character and fight, the New York Rangers dropped a wild 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators, extending their current losing skid to two games and dropping four of their last five.
New York (7-5-1) fell into a massive hole early, and while the team dug deep to claw their way back within striking distance multiple times, the early deficit proved too steep to climb out of.
Ottawa (8-4-0) came out flying, establishing their physical brand of hockey right from the opening puck drop. Drake Batherson led the charge for the Senators, racking up a hat trick and an assist. He opened the scoring at 5:34 of the first period, beating Dylan Garand blocker-side. Just 1:06 later, Tim Stutzle added his League-leading sixth first-period goal of the season off a tap-in, and Batherson struck again early in the second to put the Blueshirts in a 3-0 hole.
“I thought we came out and really kind of established the way we play and the way we want to play,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said after the win.
Down but never out, The Blueshirts refused to fold. Will Cuylle sparked the comeback bid at 10:07 of the second period, capitalizing on a 2-on-1 rush with Noah Laba to bury a short-handed marker. After Dylan Cozens restored a three-goal Ottawa lead, J.T. Miller answered right back by batting in a bouncing puck off a feed from Adam Fox.
The Garden faithful back home watching on TV must have appreciated the surge at the end of the middle frame, when Alexis Lafreniere buried a feed from Miller during 4-on-4 play at 19:34, cutting the Senators’ lead to 4-3 heading into the third.
“What’s encouraging is I loved our compete and our fight, you know, to claw back into the game,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “But it’s hard to win chasing the game the way we did.”
The third period brought wave after wave of intense hockey. Jake Sanderson pushed Ottawa’s lead to 5-3, but Pavel Dorofeyev brought the Rangers right back to within one at 15:32 by hammering a one-timer off a pass from Cuylle.
With Garand pulled for the extra attacker in the dying minutes, the Rangers pushed for the equalizer, but empty-net goals by Michael Amadio and a bizarre bounce off a blocked point shot by Fox that traveled all the way down ice for Batherson’s third of the night at 19:48 sealed the 7-4 final.
Despite the tough result, Adam Fox continued his stellar play, picking up two assists to give him seven points over his past three games. The elite defenseman has now recorded six points over consecutive games for the fourth time in his NHL career, trailing only Hockey Hall of Famer Brian Leetch (eight times) for a Blueshirts defenseman.
Three Stars of the Game
- Drake Batherson (Ottawa Senators) – A monster night for the forward, who notched a hat trick, added an assist, and capped off his stellar performance with a bizarre empty-netter to seal the win.
- Jake Sanderson (Ottawa Senators) – Anchored the Ottawa blueline and chipped in offensively with a goal and two assists, including a crucial third-period tally.
- Will Cuylle (New York Rangers) – Showed tremendous grit all night long, finishing with a short-handed goal, an assist, and heavy physical play that anchored the Rangers’ comeback effort.
Looking Ahead
The Blueshirts will need to regroup quickly on the practice ice to clean up those slow starts before their next test. The team must shake off this two-game skid and bring the tenacious third-period compete level for a full 60 minutes when they return to the ice Monday night vs LA Kings
Subscribe to our newsletter!
