NY RANGERS 4, OTTAWA SENATORS 2
The Rangers worked for 82 games to gain home-ice advantage, and now they plan on protecting it.
Clinging to a one-goal lead for most of the second period in Game 1 against the Ottawa Senators, Marian Gaborik and Brian Boyle scored fewer than three minutes apart and vaulted the Rangers to a 4-2 win at the Garden.
Brad Richards and Ryan Callahan also tallied, and Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves, as the Blueshirts took a 1-0 series lead with Game 2 set for Saturday at the Garden at 7 p.m.
New York is now 28-12-2 at home this season and 111-83-2 in the playoffs at the Garden all-time.
Thursday night marked the first time the Rangers began a playoff series at home since 1996 against Montreal, but this time the Blueshirts hardly gave their opponent a sniff until late.
Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal and the Ranger defense kept most of the Senators' early shots to the outside and at the points. In the second period, as they protected Callahan's lone goal of the first period, they iced the puck seven times, as if they were content with a one-goal lead and hesitant to push ahead. John Tortorella used a timeout to calm his club his down.
Minutes later, Gaborik stole the puck from Senators defenseman Jared Cowen along the right wall, slid in front, juked and beat Crag Anderson (27 saves) five-hole for the 2-0 lead with 3:36 remaining in the second period.
Then with 53.8 seconds remaining in the period, Brian Boyle brought the puck down after Dan Girardi's shot hit Artem Anisimov in front, and fired it in the top left corner for first career playoff goal and his eighth point in the last 10 games.
Anisimov had two assists, dogged on the forecheck all night, and though Daniel Alfredsson and Erik Condra scored late in the third period to snap Lundqvist's shutout, New York's message had been sent.
While the Rangers were 0-for-4 on the power play, they also allowed just three Senators shots on three Ottawa man advantages.
Callahan scored the only goal of the first period with 7:59 remaining, corralling an Anton Stralman rebound with his back to the net, spinning at the right circle and sliding the puck along the ice between Anderson's pad and the post.
Stralman and Anisimov got the assists after Derek Stepan and Anisimov forced the puck through the neutral zone, and Anisimov and Callahan generated several chances until the puck came back to the point.
Both teams had a power play in the first. The Rangers sputtered early but got three shots on goal while allowing no shots on Ottawa's man advantage, driven late by the hitting of Staal.
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