NHL playoffs: Rangers bounced by upstart Senators

Well, here we are once again. Coming off an overtime win at home in Game 5, one that wasn't much different than the overtime win they had in Game 2 before the series shifted to NY, the Senators took command at the start and never let go.

The New York Rangers' season came to an end on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden after dropping Game 6 by a score of 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators, losing the Eastern Conference semifinal series by the same score.

"Everything was positive", Brassard said.

The Senators, headed to the conference finals for the first time since their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, will face either Pittsburgh or Washington in the next round. Carlyle would have preferred an extra day off, but Honda Center is booked for the Stars on Ice touring show on Saturday night. The Rangers' relentless pressure forced some sloppy puck play from the Sens, eventually leading to McDonagh's tying goal. We live and die with each shift, each period and each game. The former Senator stayed cool as a cucumber, lifting his chance over Anderson and into the back of the net to halve the deficit and give the Rangers new life. The Predators also know what they've got in Rinne, who leads the postseason with a.951 save percentage and a 1.37 goals-against average while allowing only 14 goals in 10 games.

Boucher said all lineup decisions will be made Tuesday. The coaching staff put the team in position to fail, and while the players were not outstanding, they also were playing against themselves in a sense as well. 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.

They did just that.

Mika Zibanejad also scored for NY, and Henrik Lundqvist had 22 saves. The same came be said about the power play in the third.

Closing in on the 15-minute mark of the first period, however, Mark Stone came over the NY blueline and fired a hard wrist shot that beat Lundqvist to the blocker side.

"We have a long way to go here", Karlsson said.

The Rangers went down swinging, making a strong push in the third period by outshooting the Senators 15-5, but couldn't find an equalizer. Chris Neil played in Game 5 and was I guess a guy out there to "send a message", but in 2:26 of ice time he would up negating a powerplay and taking a misconduct penalty so really he was a detriment to his team. To do it, Ottawa will need a better effort than the previous two games at MSG, when they trailed 4-0 before avoiding shutouts. Zibanejad had scored at 13:32 to get the Rangers on the board.

The second goal was just a bad, soft pass by Brendan Smith.

The Ottawa Senators advanced to the Eastern Conference final on the strength of Erik Karlsson - who else? - an insurance goal from Jean-Gabriel Pageau - him again - and some improved play from their netminder.

The best player on the ice while playing through heel fractures.

"To get that one more win that we want, it's probably going to take a little bit more than what we've had in the past, and what we've had to do". NY had three power plays and more scoring chances, but Ottawa was aggressive on defense while blocking nine shots in the opening period, and whatever got past the defense was stopped by Anderson.

For Kreider, it was his third goal of the playoffs and offered some redemption for the criticism he had taken during this second round against the Senators.

With the Senators spending most of the third period desperately trying to hold the lead, and beginning to panic - "We're exhausted", Clarke MacArthur said afterward. The next defenseman up behind him, Ryan Ellis, has nine points in 10 games.

Karlsson had delivered exactly as promised: "A good job".

With time running out, Vigneault pulled Lundqvist and Pageau scored on the empty net.