NEW YORK — Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist to help the Ottawa Senators advance to the Eastern Conference finals with a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 6 of their second-round series Tuesday night.
Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone scored in the first period to power Ottawa to a fast start, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau added an empty-netter. Clarke MacArthur had two assists, and Craig Anderson stopped 37 shots.
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. Their series is headed to Game 7 on Wednesday night.
Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored for New York, and Henrik Lundqvist had 22 saves.
The Rangers trailed 3-1 after two periods, but Kreider got them within one 53 seconds into the third. He skated up the middle, went to his left and put the puck past Anderson for his third goal of the postseason.
New York outshot Ottawa 15-5 in the third but couldn’t get the equalizer. Kreider had a chance a little over 5 minutes in, but didn’t get a clean shot on a pass from Zibanejad as his attempt from in front trickled off his stick and was stopped by Anderson.
Lundqvist made some stellar saves late in the third, including a stop on Derick Brassard from the right side with 5 minutes left.
Pageau capped the scoring with 6.2 seconds left for his sixth of the series and seventh of the postseason.
Playing with a 2-0 lead, Ottawa was more aggressive to start the second period, outshooting the Rangers 6-1 over the first 7 minutes.
Anderson stopped a shot by Kevin Hayes and then smothered a follow attempt by Michael Grabner in front near the midpoint of the middle period.
Zibanejad got the Rangers on the scoreboard with about 61/2 minutes left in the second. He took a pass from Mats Zuccarello, skated in and beat Anderson on the glove side into the top right corner.
Karlsson then beat Lundqvist on the blocker side with 4:07 remaining to restore the Senators’ two-goal lead.
NOTES
STARS-KINGS: Dallas acquired the rights to goalie Ben Bishop from Los Angeles for a fourth-round pick in the upcoming draft.
Bishop, a former UMaine player, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer unless Dallas signs him before July 1, but the Stars clearly hope to secure the two-time Vezina Trophy finalist as their new starting goalie.
KINGS: Forward Tanner Pearson agreed to a four-year, $15 million contract to stay with Los Angeles.
WINTER CLASSIC: The Rangers will take on the Buffalo Sabres at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, on Jan. 1, 2018. The Sabres are technically the home game for the 10th Winter Classic because of rules surrounding the Rangers playing all home games at Madison Square Garden.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.