Rangers blow two-goal lead, chance to take wild-card berth with 4-3 OT loss to Senators

The New York Rangers kicked away another point and a possession of a wild-card playoff berth on Saturday, wasting a two-goal lead in the third period and losing 4-3 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.

Michael Amadio tied the game by knocking in a loose puck with 2:52 left in regulation, and Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk scored 33 seconds into OT to give the Senators the win and move Ottawa (32-25-5) into the first wild card in the Eastern Conference. That’s where the Rangers would have been if they could have held onto the two-goal lead they took into the final 10 minutes of the third period.

Instead, for the second time in as many games, they had to settle for one point – just as was the case Wednesday when they lost 3-2 to the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden after leading 2-1 entering the final 20 minutes. It was the Rangers’ 29th game this season against a team currently holding a playoff berth; they’ve won just nine.

The Rangers (31-26-6) got one point and are even in points with the Columbus Blue Jackets (30-24-8), who come to the Garden on Sunday, for the second wild card. The Jackets are ahead because they’ve played one fewer game.

“We don’t have time [to be] frustrated for too long,” said Artemi Panarin, who scored the third-period goal that made it 3-1. “We have a very important game tomorrow. We have to be ready.”

New York never trailed until Tkachuk took a pass from Tim Stutzle and rifled it past Igor Shesterkin for the win. It was Tkachuk’s ninth shot of the game and the 37th for Ottawa, which limited the Rangers to 23. Stutzle got the puck when the Rangers misfired on a pass in their own zone.

Before the late collapse, it looked like a banner day for Shesterkin (33 saves) and newcomer Carson Soucy, a defenseman acquired from the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, scored in his Rangers debut. Mika Zibanejad made it 2-0 early in the second period before Tkachuk got one back 11 seconds later.

Panarin’s goal with less than 13 minutes remaining in the third period put the Rangers up by two again. But Ridley Greig scored on a rebound with 9:44 left before the late heroics by Amadio and Tkachuk.

“That’s disappointing” coach Peter Laviolette said. “We were in control of the game. We didn’t finish it, so it’s disappointing we leave a point on the table and not get the win.”

Ottawa Senators 4 – New York Rangers 3 (OT)

Neither team generated a lot of offense in the early going. Ottawa got a power play 1:57 into the game when Sam Carrick took a needless elbowing penalty, but the Rangers killed it off easily. Shesterkin had to be sharp just before the six-minute mark to stop Claude Giroux on a 3-on-1 break, then robbed Stutzle a few minutes later after the Rangers’ defense let him walk down unimpeded from the left point to the face-off dot.

The Rangers had generated little offense until Soucy scored 8:37 into the game on one of the weakest goals that Ullmark, the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner with the Boston Bruins, will ever give up.

The big defenseman took a pass from Panarin and swung wide outside the left dot before taking a wrist shot that Ullmark appeared to squeeze between his pads. But the puck leaked through, and there was an audible groan from the crowd as it trickled over the goal line. Referee Ghislain Hebert had whistled the play dead before the puck rolled over the line, but after a video review, the play was ruled a continuation and the goal counted, giving New York a 1-0 lead.

Shesterkin was the hero in the final minutes of the period after the Rangers went shotless on a power play they received at 15:11 when Grieg slashed Victor Trocheck.

No. 31 robbed Tkachuk, who was alone in the slot, with just over two minutes left and, after Soucy was called for roughing the Ottawa captain at 17:58, stopped newcomer Dylan Cozens, who was alone in the slot and denied Shane Pinto from 15 feet.

He then made two saves on Tkachuk during a goalmouth scramble in the final 10 seconds to send the Rangers to the dressing room with a 1-0 lead despite Ottawa’s 9-3 lead in 5-on-5 scoring chances and a 4-1 edge in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Rangers went more than three minutes into the second period without a shot on goal, but they made their first one count when Zibanejad scored at 3:55 for a 2-0 lead. Urho Vaakanainen’s rim-around clearing pass caught Will Cuylle along the left boards in center ice, and he got the puck to J.T. Miller, who found Zibanejad for a wrister that ticked off the stick of Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson and zipped past Ullmark.

But the two-goal lead lasted just 11 seconds. Tkachuk dug the puck out of a face-off and got it back to Nick Jensen at the right point. He then went to the net and deflected Jensen’s shot down and past Shesterkin at 4:06 to make it 2-1 and extend his goal-scoring streak to five games.

The goaltenders owned the rest of the middle period.

Stutzle drew a hooking call on Braden Schneider at 8:47, giving Ottawa its third power play. Shesterkin made two saves, including a tough one on Stutzle’s left-wing rip through traffic that caught his shoulder.

Artem Zub tripped Trocheck to give the Rangers a power play at 12:19. This time the Rangers had three shots on goal and a couple of other excellent opportunities that missed the net. Shesterkin set up Trocheck for perhaps the best chance with a 100-foot pass that triggered a 2-on-1 break, but Ullmark made the save.

Ullmark also robbed Panarin with 3:37 left in the period, getting his glove on what looked like a sure goal, then made a terrific save on Trocheck from the slot less than 15 seconds after Shesterkin stopped a deflection by Stutzle on a 4-on-2 rush.

The second period ended 2-1 for the Rangers, but not before their season-long bugaboo – being penalized for having too many men on the ice, the 13th time it’s happened – set up Ottawa for a power play to start the final 20 minutes.

The Rangers killed the penalty, but not before Sanderson nearly tied the game 20 seconds into the period when he waltzed through three defenders only to be denied by Shesterkin’s glove. Ottawa controlled play and limited the Rangers to one shot through the first seven minutes of the period before New York scored in transition to make it 3-1.

K’Andre Miller broke up a play in his own zone and quickly got the puck to Jonny Brodzinski. He sent Panarin in alone, and the Rangers’ top scorer got his 27th goal of the season with a quick release past Ullmark that extended his goal streak to four games.

The Rangers technically killed Ottawa’s fifth power play, but Greig banged in the rebound of Cozens’ shot off the post at 10:16 to make it 3-2. The goal came one second after Juuso Parkinen’s hooking penalty expired.

Ottawa kept the pressure on and finally got even with 2:52 remaining when Amadio swatted home a loose puck in the crease at make it 3-3. Shesterkin tried to cover the puck with his glove but couldn’t do it before Amadio knocked it into the net.

“It’s frustrating,” Zibanejad said of settling for the single point. “We had the lead in the third period and gave it up, giving them two points.”