Ottawa's come-from-behind victory ties the increasingly bitter series as it shifts to Ottawa for Game 3 on Monday — perhaps without the Senators' 39-year-old captain, Daniel Alfredsson, who absorbed a blow to the head from the Rangers rookie forward Carl Hagelin in the second period.
The Rangers appeared headed to victory after Brian Boyle put them ahead at 2:41 of the third period. He took a pass from Ruslan Fedotenko — who declined to take a clear shot on Senators goalie Craig Anderson — and fired home as he was being knocked down by Jesse Winchester.
"Feds had an open shot, but he gave it to me, and I just tried to get rid of it," Boyle said. "I was happy it went in."
But Nick Foligno tied the score with only 4:37 left in regulation, when a shot by Ottawa slithered past Rangers defenseman Marc Staal and onto Foligno's stick in front of goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Foligno poked it home to force overtime.
The Senators had vengeance on their minds from the opening face-off. They were out to punish Boyle for grabbing the high-scoring defenseman Erik Karlsson in Game 1 and punching him six times in the head.
Boyle is 6 feet 7 inches and 244 pounds, and Karlsson is 6 feet and 180 pounds, but the Senators did not retaliate against Boyle during that first game.
It was different Saturday. Coach Paul MacLean sent out several fighters in the starting lineup: Terry Carkner, Zack Smith, Chris Neil and Zenon Konopka, who was playing the first playoff game of his seven-season N.H.L. career. Rangers Coach John Tortorella countered with his main fighters — Mike Rupp, Brandon Prust and Stu Bickel.
It had all the makings of a game-opening brawl, but the Senators fighters all left the ice after only 15 seconds, and it was back to hockey — but only briefly.
As it turned out, the Senators were simply waiting for Boyle to step onto the ice. As soon as he did, at 1:51, Carkner leapt on for Ottawa. Boyle hit Smith in the corner, and Carkner piled into Boyle, knocking him down at 2:15. Then the fighting started.
Carkner sat on top and threw four or five punches at the prone Boyle, who was as defenseless as Karlsson was when Boyle pummeled him in Game 1. A big pileup ensued, and the Rangers' Brandon Dubinsky tried to get at Carkner to pull him off.
For that, Dubinsky was given a game misconduct. As he was escorted to the dressing room, the infuriated Dubinsky overturned a cooler.
But Carkner was also given a game misconduct for attacking Boyle, as well as an additional five-minute penalty. The Rangers, however, managed only two shots during the long power play.
It was not finished with Boyle. At 8:17, Neil squared off with him, and the two had a sharp but brief fight.
Fifteen seconds later, Sergei Gonchar was sent off for hooking Artem Anisimov, and on the ensuing power play, Anton Stralman's shot from the blue line tipped off an Ottawa stick past Anderson to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
In the second period, there was more controversy.
At 10:32, Hagelin ran Alfredsson into the glass with a high elbow that struck Alfredsson in the temple. Alfredsson crumpled to the ice and went off slowly as the angry Senators converged on Hagelin, who was already protesting his innocence before they got to him.
Hagelin received a five-minute elbowing major.
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