Wednesday, April 3, 2019 07:30 PM (ET)

Senators clinch season series over Rangers

Field Level Media
Apr 3, 2019

Rookie Brady Tkachuk had a goal with an assist to help the visiting Ottawa Senators beat the New York Rangers 4-1 on Wednesday night.

Bobby Ryan, Zack Smith and Brian Gibbons also scored, and backup goalie Anders Nilsson made 27 saves for the Senators (29-45-6, 64 points), who took two of three from the Rangers during a season series between teams that will miss the playoffs.

Though Ottawa will finish with the fewest points in the NHL, it has won six times in the last 10 games.

New York (31-36-13, 75 points) is 3-8-1 over the past 12 games. Henrik Lundqvist also stopped 27 shots while losing his sixth consecutive start. He remains one win shy of 450 for his career.

The Senators opened the scoring via both of their special teams units in the first period.

First, Ryan took a perfect pass from Chris Tierney and snapped one top-shelf past Lundqvist for a power-play goal 12:14 into the game. It was just the third goal over a 29-game stretch for Ryan.

A little over one minute later, and after Cody Ceci went to the box for tripping, Ottawa recorded a short-handed goal courtesy of Smith, who received a cross-slot pass from Magnus Paajarvi off the give-and-go. That snapped a nine-game goal drought for Smith.

The special teams fun continued for Ottawa at 3:51 into the second period. With the Senators working a five-on-three, Tkachuk wrapped the puck around the post for his 22nd of the season.

Tkachuk, who assisted on Ryan's goal, has 45 points in 69 games this season and five goals with three assists in the past six contests.

New York pulled one back with its own short-handed score 4:52 into the second. Lias Andersson broke away, then went backhand-forehand and past Nilsson for his second goal of the season -- both against Ottawa.

Gibbons put the game away for the Senators on a tap-in, off Colin White's second assist, with 5:02 left in regulation.

--Field Level Media

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