Garden of Dreams Turns Bad for Rangers with Loss to Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators upset the New York Rangers 2-1 in Madison Square Garden.

It was "Garden Of Dreams Awareness Night" with the Garden of Dreams Foundation to make dreams come true for kids in crisis at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. The New York Rangers wanted to make it four wins in a row.

The Rangers had not won four games in a row since October. The team got off to a great start this season but suffered through a long mid-season slump that took them from first place to worst in the playoff picture and then out of the playoffs briefly. They have been playing like a new team since the start of March.

The Ottawa Senators extended their win streak to five in a row. The Rangers wanted two points to move into a tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins, in sixth place, to help turn their playoff dream into a reality.

The Senators gave the Rangers a wake-up call and turned their dream into a bit of a nightmare.

The Rangers remain in seventh place after 73 games with a 38-27-8 record, for 84 points. They have scored 187 goals but have 198 goals scored against them. They are now 22-11-4 at home.

The Senators improve their record to 32- 30-10 record and 74 points. They are 12-18-4 on the road and 9-2-0 in their last eleven games.

On paper, the Rangers looked like the winners, even though both teams were hot and the Senators had a longer winning streak going. It was another sell-out at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers starting lineup of Chris Drury, Nik Antropov, and Markus Naslund faced off against the first line for the Senators with Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredson, and Danny Heatley. Spezza was on a nine-game scoring streak.

Gomez got a good shot on his first shift, on a pass from Avery, and Avery got hit hard by Mike Fisher. Avery was joined by Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky and Dubinsky ended a long goal scoring slump to make it 1-0.

Callahan and Avery assisted on Dubinsky's goal. Dubinsky, the Rangers rookie, had gone 23 games without a goal. He now has nine goals and 27 assists for 36 points this season.

Avery and Jarku Ruutu mixed it up, as anticipated, in the first period, but Avery didn't fall for his attempt to get him to take a penalty. Ruutu is called the Avery of Ottawa.

Many hockey fans remember Ruutu hitting Jaromir Jagr from behind in a 2006 Olympic hockey game between Finland and the Czech Republic. The hit is still on YouTube.
 
The first period ended with the Senators out-shooting the Rangers but with the home team up by one goal.

Mike Comrie tied the game five minutes into the second period and the game opened up a bit but the Rangers had a sloppy second period, no pun intended.

At the start of the third period, Ottawa got the go-ahead goal when Ryan Shannon took the puck after a give-away by Gomez and beat Lundqvist, shooting it over his left shoulder.

The Rangers called a time-out with less than two minutes to play and pulled the goalie.

Avery, Gomez, and Drury all had over 20 minutes of ice time in the game.