The Ottawa Senators are one win away from the half way mark to becoming Stanley Cup Champions. In their way are the New York Rangers who will try to force a game seven back in Ottawa and tie the series 3-3 and extend their 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs series.
The New York Rangers have a record of 4-1 at the Madison Square Garden in the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs after a 21-16-4 record at home during the regular season. The Rangers will need to continue that success at home or their season will be over.
The Ottawa Senators are one win away from a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2007, when the Senators also made their only appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. After losing games three and four in New York, the Senators will need to turn things around on the road in order to close out the series.
After scoring two goals in the span of 1:06 in the first 5:13 seconds of game five off goals from Jesper Fast and Nick Holden, the Rangers seen that lead start to disappear pretty quickly. The lead was cut in half 50 seconds later by Mark Stone and tied up at 8:17 of the second period by Mike Hoffman. The Senators picked up momentum with the goal and Tom Pyatt scored 33 seconds later to get their first lead of the game but the Rangers tied it up with 2:11 left in the second to send the teams tied at 3 going into the intermission.
Jimmy Vesey scored his first career NHL Playoff goal 12:48 into the third to put the Rangers back in the lead and what looked to be a victory and a 3-2 series lead. Derick Brassard and the Senators didn’t let up though and tied the game 4-4 with 1:26 seconds left in the game to send game five to overtime.
The Senators wasted little time in overtime and Kyle Turris scored 6:28 into the extra period to give the Senators the series lead and one victory away from the 2017 Eastern Conference Championship.
Key Players
Erik Karlsson leads the Senators with 11 points in the playoffs, followed by Derick Brassard with nine points. Karlsson collected three assists in the Senators game five overtime win and five assists in five games in the series with the Rangers. The Senators captain has shown in every game of the series not only that the MVP of the Senators team, but MVP to any team left in the playoffs.
Ryan McDonagh and Mika Zibanejad both lead the Rangers with seven points in the playoffs, with Mats Zuccarello and Michael Grabner both leading the Rangers with four goals. The Rangers have been able to find offense throughout their lineup and will need to continue to show their depth in order to force a game seven.
Goalies
Craig Anderson has a 7-4 record with 2.43 goals against average and .909 save percentage, with one shutout throughout the playoffs so far. After stopping 34 of 35 shots in game one against the Rangers, Anderson has gone on to let in 3 or more goals in the rest of the games, including five goals in game two and a .850 save percentage in game four. The Ottawa netminder will need to be on the top of his game in order to eliminate the Rangers.
Henrik Lundqvist has a 6-5 record with 2.18 goals against average and .930 save percentage, with one shutout throughout the playoffs so far. The Rangers goaltender has been the better goalie in the series but has let in six goals in game two and five goals in game five. Lundqvist has been strong in the Rangers wins against the Senators, allowing one goal in each of the games. The Rangers will need Lundqvist to be “King Hank”, or fans will be waiting until October for their next time to cheer on the team.
Next: Lundqvist Elimination History
Prediction
The Rangers will have a strong start and continue their dominance at home against the Senators in the playoffs, sending them back to Ottawa for game seven on Thursday.