The Ottawa Senators fall to the NY Rangers with only one game left to play

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You watch the Ottawa Senators play the New York Rangers and you see what it takes to be a first place team and how far the Senators have to go to be at the elite level.

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While the shooting didn't go entirely in New York's favor in Monday's game (34-26), the Rangers were the better team. Clearly.

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And you didn't have to see the score – 4-0 New York – to figure it out.

The game was significant for the Rangers, with the victory clinching first place in the NHL, giving them the Presidents' Trophy and giving them home field advantage in the playoffs.

There is only one game left in the Senators' season; They will finish Tuesday night in Boston against the Bruins. A playoff possibility has long been in the rearview mirror.

“(The Rangers) play right, they play hard, they have skill, they have depth,” Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson. “It should fire you up when you play against them. We didn’t have enough fire tonight.”

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“The unfortunate thing is that we scored their first two goals,” said coach Jacques Martin. “We talked about it this morning, we talked about puck management. The first goal, a loss of the ball. The second is a shorthanded goal. If you take those two goals away, it's a good game. When you play against these good teams, you can’t afford to give them freebies.”

When the Senators had good chances to score on Monday, they were turned away by Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin.

It's not that Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo had a bad night. The Rangers had many great scoring opportunities.

“We had a few mishaps at the end; “A team like this is going to capitalize on his skill set,” Sanderson said.

The Rangers took the lead 1-0 after 5:55 minutes. Artem Zub was stripped of the puck, giving the Rangers a 2-on-1, with Jack Roslovic throwing a pass from Chris Kreider past Korpisalo.

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The Rangers were outnumbered 8:58 into the second half. Former Senator Mika Zibanejad got the move started, then defender Adam Fox directed a pass from Chris Kreider to make it 2-0 for the home team.

After a few good scoring chances for the Senators at the start of the third period, the Rangers scored their 49th goal of the season with a redirect from Artemi Panarin, the bread man, to make it 3-0.

The Rangers' ability was evident with their fourth goal seven minutes from time. It was a beautiful three-way passing game: Panarin over Erik Gustafsson and Alexis Lafreniere, who fired a one-timer past Korpisalo.

RINK WRAP

Rangers tough guy Matt Rempe, who has quickly made a name for himself with his fists, declined an invitation from the Senators' Boko Imama to drop the gloves early in the first period. Late in the game, after Rempe took a tripping kick, Brady Tkachuk delivered a big shot to the big man… Mathieu Joseph made a great play on the penalty kill late in the first period that almost resulted in a goal for Ottawa… There were still 2.4 seconds left in the half, the Rangers won a faceoff to Korpisalo's left and came very close to scoring… Just over five minutes into the second half, Korpisalo made a close-range save from Lafreniere. Shortly before, Jakob Chychrun successfully broke up a 3-on-1 win for the Rangers. A little embellishment from Shesterkin after he was grazed by Tkachuk late in the second period… Imama left the game with an “upper body injury.”

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ICE CHIPS

As a Sidney Crosby fan who grew up not far from New York City, Senators center Shane Pinto saw several Pittsburgh Penguins games at Madison Square Garden, one of the NHL's most historic arenas. When asked if he could play in the rink, he said earlier in the day: “If you don't get on in this rink, you've got a problem.”… Ridly Greig missed the morning skate due to illness, but was at the game between Claude Giroux and Mathieu Joseph back. When asked about Greig, teammate Drake Batherson said: “After waking up this morning he was puking for the first five hours. He's a tough kid. He deserves credit, he wanted to be out there with us.” … Zack Ostapchuk was called up from Belleville but didn't end up playing … The Rangers were awarded a penalty with 4:29 left when Jimmy Vesey caught a breakaway. Vesey missed.

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