Like it’s been all season, nothing comes easy for the Rangers.
So why would it be any different on Saturday night, when they got their first crack at wrapping up a playoff spot and instead were unable to beat back the Senators, dropping a 3-2 defeat in the Garden that delayed their entrance into the postseason tournament for another day.
“I hope our mind-set is not to clinch, it’s about getting the home advantage,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “That’s my mind-set going into this. I’d rather look ahead than behind me, but we’ll take the next game and focus on that.”
Lundqvist was irate at the officiating crew for allowing what turned out to be the game-winning goal, when 8:27 into the second period he thought he had the puck frozen underneath his pads, and yet, in his words, he was “pitch-forked” by Jason Spezza, pushing him back into the net and even dragging his own stick to propel the puck through his legs and over the goal line, giving Ottawa a 3-1 lead.
“You hope for a quick whistle,” Lundqvist said, “but it didn’t happen.”
No, it didn’t, and now the Rangers (43-31-5) remain four points ahead of the Flyers for second place in the Metropolitan Division, as Philadelphia dropped a 5-2 afternoon game to the Bruins. They could have been granted a playoff berth if both the Devils and Maple Leafs lost, but the Devils kept their season alive with a 3-1 win in Carolina — even as the Maple Leafs continue their monumental collapse, losing 4-2 in Winnipeg.
“We’re still in a good spot here,” said defenseman Dan Girardi, who played for the second straight game without his stalwart partner, Ryan McDonagh, still out with his left shoulder injury suffered in Vancouver on Tuesday. “It’s in our hands to get that win and secure hopefully the playoffs, and secure home ice in the first round.”
The Blueshirts were coming off a four-game, eight-day road trip, one they handled well in going 2-1-1, and took their record over the past nine games to 7-1-1. Yet the standard let-down of the first game back at home came to bite them, even if the Senators (33-31-14) were coming off a horrible 7-4 loss to the Canadiens on Friday night, a game in which Ottawa held a 3-0 lead and blew — along with all reasonable expectations for the playoffs.
“They came out hard today and we weren’t ready,” said Mats Zuccarello, who scored both of the Rangers goals on deflections, the first early in the second to cut the Senators lead to 2-1, and the second with 11:55 gone by in the second period, the last tangible pushback the Rangers would have after Spezza’s “pitch-fork” goal. “We had some chances to score and we didn’t score, but that’s just the way it is.”
The third period was one in which the Rangers peppered goalie Robin Lehner with 13 shots, but just like the 16 they put on him in the first, all were stopped. With 2:47 remaining the game, Ottawa instigator Chris Neil took a run at Marc Staal, burying him with a hit Zuccarello called “dirty,” “blind-side” and
“late.” It started a fracas that showed a solidarity in the Rangers that has hardly been questioned, but it also slapped Staal with a double-minor roughing call that all but ended the game.
Now the Rangers next chance to clinch will be Tuesday with the hapless Hurricanes in town, and that elusive point just dangling in front of them.
“Every game now is going to be tough,” Lundqvist said. “We are playing teams that are out of it, so we have to respect that.”