NEW YORK

Erik Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators showed off their toughness in the third period. The New York Rangers pushed and pushed, but the resilient Senators held on — all the way to their first Eastern Conference final in 10 years.

Karlsson had a goal and an assist, Craig Anderson made 37 saves and the Senators eliminated the Rangers with a 4-2 victory in Game 6 of their second-round series Tuesday night.

“We knew they were going to come back with a real good push,” Senators forward Kyle Turris said. “We knew it was going to be probably the hardest period of the playoffs for us so far. It was and we just tried to weather the storm.”

Trailing 3-1 after two periods, New York pulled within one on Chris Kreider’s goal 53 seconds into the third. The Rangers outshot the Senators 15-5 in the final period, but couldn’t find the equalizer.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau clinched the series for Ottawa with an empty-netter with 6.2 seconds left for his seventh goal of the postseason.

Stone and Mike Hoffman scored in the first period for Ottawa, and Clarke MacArthur finished with two assists.

The Senators, headed to the conference finals for the first time since their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, will face Pittsburgh or Washington in the next round. Their series is headed to Game 7 on tonight.

Mika Zibanejad also scored for New York, and Henrik Lundqvist had 22 saves.

Kreider had a chance to tie it a little over five minutes into the third, but didn’t get a clean shot on a pass from Zibanejad. 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.

Zibanejad got the Rangers on the scoreboard with about 6 1/2 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.