Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk (7) jumps over the stick of New York Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick (32) as Rangers centre Vincent Trocheck (16) controls the puck during first period NHL hockey action in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – The New York Rangers scored five unanswered goals in the second period en route to blitzing the Ottawa Senators 7-2 Saturday night.
Alexis Lafreniere, Chris Kreider, Zac Jones, Jonny Brodzinski, Blake Wheeler, Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers (30-16-3), who were coming off a 5-2 loss to Vegas Friday night.
The Rangers are 9-0-0 in the second half of back-to-back games.
Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for the visitors.
Ottawa got off to a solid start with Brady Tkachuk and Jakob Chychrun scoring the first two goals, but things fell apart in the second. Joonas Korpisalo was pulled after allowing four goals on 17 shots. Mads Sogaard gave up two goals on 11 shots.
The Senators (18-25-2) had been riding a five-game point streak (3-0-2) coming into the game.
A lacklustre third period by the Senators had the sellout crowd heading for the exits early. Panarin added an empty-net goal and Kakko rounded out the scoring with a late goal.
The second period started off well for the Senators with Chychrun scoring a power-play goal at 1:24, but the Rangers responded scoring five straight goals to take a 5-2 lead.
Lafreniere opened the scoring when the puck bounced off the back boards into Korpisalo and he grabbed the loose puck and tucked it in. Kreider tied the game with a shot from the top of the circle. Mika Zibanejad picked up his 500th point as a Ranger on the play.
The Rangers scored 39 seconds later when Jones took a cross-ice pass from Artemi Panarin and 2:04 later made it 4-2 on Brodzinksi’s second of the season. That was the end of Korpisalo’s night.
Just over five minutes later Zibanejad beat Thomas Chabot and dished a pass to Wheeler to beat Sogaard.
The Senators opened the scoring with Claude Giroux finding Tkachuk for his 20th of the season. Giroux picked up his 700th career assist on the play.
NOTES
Ottawa D Travis Hamonic is out with an upper-body injury, while Dominik Kubalik and Zack MacEwen were healthy scratches. New York’s Jacob Trouba served the first of a two-game suspension for elbowing Vegas Golden Knights forward Pavel Dorofeyev.
UP NEXT
Senators: Host the Nashville Predators on Monday.
Rangers: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 5.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2024.
