Ottawa Senators rout New York Rangers 3-2 to level Playoff series -NHL Update
After a dominating 4-2 victory in the opening matchup of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Eastern Conference playoff quarterfinals, New York played sluggishly and gave up the match as Ottawa Senators routed Rangers, 3-2, Saturday night, April 14, 2012,
at the sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York.
Senators and Rangers could not wait any longer after the opening faceoff as Matt Carkner and Brandon Dubinsky exchanged fists while Chris Neil and Brian Boyle went at it, giving both pairs a major penalty for fighting and various misconducts.
Now that Senators will be heading back home for the next two games, Ottawa is feeling much more confident that they will be having the Canadian home crowd backing them up.
Anton Stralman scored the opening goal of the match on a power play advantage as Sergei Gonchar went out for tripping nearly midway through. Erik Karlsson came through for Ottawa by scoring the equaliser at 13:50 into the second on a power play opportunity
of their own.
"Erik's an elite player for us," Senators’ Chris Neil said. "I think he's a guy we have to look after. We didn't like what happened in Game 1 and we tried to come out and take care of it in Game 2. Boyle hung in there and did what he had to do, and he ended
up getting a goal too. We didn't like what he did to Erik and we got to take care of that stuff."
Brian Boyle added the tie-breaker for his second of the series while Nick Foligno potted the equaliser to force another life in overtime.
Chris Neil wrapped the puck around and grabbed the game-winner for his first of the series and taking their first win of the Eastern Conference series.
"We stressed getting pucks to the net, and getting traffic there, as well. That's the kind of goals that you win with," Neil said. "They are greasy goals, and we'll take it. It's big momentum for us and we've just got to keep on building on it."
Ottawa and New York will be facing off in game-three of the quarterfinals on Senators home-ice on Monday, April 16.
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