Rangers top Senators 4-1, tie series 2-2

Teams that win Game 5 when a series is tied 2-2 have gone on to win 78.7 per cent of the time, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, including a ideal 3-0 in 2017. “They won those two games here”, said Senators forward Derick Brassard.

“It wasn’t good enough today”. Phil Kessel put the Pens up 2-1 after Andre Burakovsky responded to Hagelin’s score.

Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Caps got the game-tying goal from Nicklas Backstrom just 2:49 into the final stanza. Condon finished with nine stops.

All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors missed practice Thursday because of his sprained left ankle, and the team says more tests are scheduled to determine the severity of the injury.

BY THE NUMBERS: Just one more reason that Turris was the game’s first star – he led all players with a 15-8 record in the faceoff circles … “Had their fans and the momentum”. The first came on two fine feeds from Erik Karlsson and Clarke MacArthur at 8:17, the latter a fake shot sent cross-ice to Hoffman who buried the shot past Lundqvist.

“We felt it was better for him to keep him off the ice in the (third) period”, Boucher said of Karlsson.

The Rangers have scored first all five games this series. NY has probably been the better team in all four games so far, but in the first two, Ottawa kept things close and did just enough-their hallmark.

“Look at these assists”, Glass said. Great, they are all secondary assists. I have no doubt that the players now in the lineup are trying their absolute hardest to win. “Sometimes it ends up in the back of the net”. And with the Rangers exploding, scoring 13 goals in their last three contests, the odds have to be stacked against a Sens comeback. “It gave us-the coaches-one more day to prepare and to look at a few things, work on a few things with our players”, Alain Vigneault told reporters after the Rangers’ practice. Hes been playing some really good hockey.

Crosby sat out Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory in Game 4 of its Eastern Conference semifinal against Washington on Wednesday.

That left Turris to win the game with his shot.

“I think it’s the last couple of games”, Lundqvist said.

“It’s not a one-man show here”, Lundqvist said.

McDonagh tied it for the Rangers late in the second and Vesey gave them the lead in the third.

Burakovsky pumped some energy back in with a psychologically important goal with 29.7 seconds remaining in the first period.

For a team whose foundation is based in strong structure in the neutral and defensive zones, what transpired at Canadian Tire Centre Saturday afternoon was disconcerting.

Kreider’s power-play goal at 10:45 of the third pushed the lead to 4-0.

“We need to be fast, we need to play with speed, intensity”, he said, “and we have to push back”. “Whenever we got chances, we didn’t capitalize”.

The Rangers scored first only 4:07 into the match when, on a three-on-two rush, Brendan Smith took the puck to the outside and then hit the trailer, Jesper Fast, who had the empty side of the Ottawa net awaiting him. Now the Senators understand just how vital it is for them to come out strong as they hold a 2-1 series lead. There has been tremendous effort up and down the line up for the Rangers as they have been getting contributions from all over.

It was defensemen Nick Holden that got the scoring started for the Rangers as he took a feed from Kevin Hayes. “Every time you lose a game you just have to play better next game and that’s our mindset”, Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello said. “If you expect to win you’re going to need contributions from your whole team and we definitely got that tonight”. If he had been even a quarter-second quicker, the game would have still been tied.