The defining moment last night was more like two minutes, the embodiment of the Rangers’ mentality in the form of a penalty kill.
Barely holding on to a 1-0 lead with seven minutes remaining in the second period, the gritty Rangers stifled the Senators’ electric power play and swung momentum in their direction, resulting in two quick goals en route to a 4-2 victory in Game 1 of their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
“They’ve got a talented group and I thought our penalty kill was good tonight,” said Marc Staal, who played a major role in keeping the Senators scoreless in three man-advantages totaling 6:00. “They’ve got a good group and it’s something we knew we needed to be on and we were solid.”
Although the Rangers ended the first period up 1-0, they were outshot 13-8 and it seemed like the Senators were doing most of the puck possession. Almost 13 minutes in the second, Ryan McDonagh went down to block a shot and ended up sliding into the legs of shifting Erik Karlsson.
McDonagh was called for a trip — much to the chagrin of the 18,200 in attendance, because they knew what a turning point it could be if the Senators scored and tied the game.
“They’ve got guys that can move the puck around,” Staal said. “Reading off each other is the biggest thing and not really paying attention to what they’re doing, just making sure we’re doing the right thing.”
The right thing is exactly what they did.
Brian Boyle won a defensive faceoff. Quick sticks caused Karlsson, the Senators’ sniper, to miss the net. Then when Karlsson got the puck back, Ryan Callahan stepped in front of a shot and blocked it.
By the time Staal put a hard hit on Milan Michalek, the man-advantage was over, the crowd was on their feet, and within five minutes Marian Gaborik and Brian Boyle both scored to make it 3-0.
“They’re going to try and make adjustments,” Boyle said. “That was big. We need to kill them off.”
The Senators’ regular-season power play was ranked 11th in the league (18.2 percent), while the Rangers matched that with a penalty kill ranked fifth (86.2 percent), built mostly on a blue-collar mindset that permeates their whole game.
“I thought we killed penalties very well tonight,” coach John Tortorella said. “It’s going to have to maintain. They have a really good power play so we’re going to have to keep on working on it.”