After Game 3 win, Rangers look to tie series against Sens

Karlsson was beat up again and again in the opening two periods. Karlsson finished with just 14:54 of ice time. He was officially credited with one hit, but he was on the receiving end of five or six big hits.

“He’s got a skillset, but his best skillset is his competitive nature”, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said of his forward who led the team with 59 points in the regular season.

Nash then increased the Rangers’ lead with his 15th career postseason goal – third this year – with 7:39 remaining in the middle period. These last two games were extremely encouraging for the Rangers, which sets the stage perfectly for Game 5 in Ottawa. No matter the lineup, Boucher is aware his team must give a more complete effort than it did in Game 3.

The signature exchange came about seven minutes into the second period when Miller and Karlsson went head-to-head in the corner in an exchange of body checks. The Rangers’ real strength is their depth-they have four lines capable of pushing play, and over the course of a game or a series, that constant pressure can exhaust a tired, banged-up defense like Ottawa’s. It is wearing down the Senators and frustrating them. If the Senators win, the Rangers need to win out.

There was more anger where that came from. But an uneventful third period meant that the Rangers would walk away with their first victory of the series.

Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone collided in the neutral zone, triggering a two-on-one.

“He’s our best player”, said Kyle Turris.

“We haven’t done anything yet”, Glass said. You just see the quality he has in him as a center. “We’ve got to change that”. Emotions got high, with a Dion Phaneuf-Brendan Smith scrap, Bobby Ryan trying to fight Dan Girardi and a Turris – Tanner Glass confrontation, and then pretty much a line scuffle led by Alex Burrows.

“As soon as you have four lines contributing, whether it’s forecheck or playing good defensively, it gets tough on their D”, Lindberg said. “Those guys filled those minutes well”.

Need More winners against the spread? Gregory Campbell could barely skate on a broken leg after blocking a shot in 2013, but finishing his shift during the Bruins’ run made him into a cult phenomenon in a sport that glorifies taking frozen rubber fired at more than 100 miles per hour off whatever part of your body you choose – as long as you keep it out of the net. That’s the most important thing. He has allowed two goals on 50 shots on goal in his last two games, both Rangers wins. “I think everybody felt like we played a real strong game when we needed to the most”.

But at Game 3 in NY, fans wore the uniform of Wall Street, which is after all just a short subway ride away. He fell awkwardly over sliding Ranger Chris Kreider, came up wincing and was nowhere to be seen when his teammates returned from the second intermission. On his second breakaway of the game – he was denied only 82 seconds in by Anderson’s blocker – Grabner opted against shooting and instead dropped a pass to Lindberg, who was also ahead of the Senators defense, for an easy finish. He took a pass from Mika Zibanejad and beat Anderson to the stick side.

Kyle Turris finally snapped Lundqvist’s shutout streak with less than seven minutes left in regulation, and then the Senators chose to make the game a circus. The Rangers took a 1-0 lead after one period, 3-0 after two and 4-0 midway through the third before Ottawa finally snapped Lundqvist’s shutout bid.