OTTAWA — It has gotten to the point where it’s hard to think this isn’t boring a hole in the Rangers’ collective psyche — that is, trying to defend a lead when the opposition pulls their goaltender for the extra attacker.
For the third time this postseason, the Rangers gave up a 6-on-5 goal and blew a late-game lead, this one resulting in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Senators in Game 5 of their second-round series Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre.
This goal came from old buddy Derick Brassard, who stepped on the ice as goalie Craig Anderson went to the bench, eventually batting one in during a chaotic scrum in front with just 1:26 remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime. That’s where Kyle Turris won it, giving the Senators a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and putting the Rangers on the brink of elimination.
“There’s definitely an area, as far as structure-wise, that I thought we had addressed,” coach Alain Vigneault said of the game-tying play. “Maybe the guys didn’t know the goaltender was coming. But there was less than two minutes, they’re down by a goal, so [they] should expect it. But maybe the guys got caught there not knowing that the goalie was out.”
What was clear at that point was that the Rangers were under siege, and all of their defensive-zone structure collapsed. The play was facilitated by an all-world cross-ice pass from Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson, setting up a shot from Clarke MacArthur that was stopped by goalie Henrik Lundqvist. But the rebound bounced around the gathering of bodies in front, and Brassard was able to skate in and somehow — either off his stick or his leg — get it to trickle by the sprawled-out Lundqvist and over the goal line.
Asked if there’s a reason that has happened three times this postseason, captain Ryan McDonagh simply said, “No.”
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“Obviously, [Karlsson] makes a pretty good pass across the zone there, finds an open guy,” McDonagh said. “So you get open looks like that, anything can happen. A bounce, whatever. We have to find a way to get guys to get it done.”
The first time it happened during these playoffs was in Game 2 of the first-round series against the Canadiens, when Tomas Plekanec was able to tie the game with 17.3 seconds remaining in regulation. It then happened again in Game 2 of this series, when the Senators came back from three separate two-goal deficits to tie it on a Jean-Gabriel Pageau goal with just 62 seconds left.
All three times it has happened, it has resulted in the Rangers losing. Needless to say, they know it’s something they need to figure out before it’s too late.
“Obviously it’s a challenge for the team that’s shorthanded, but there are definitely some guidelines that, as a coach and a team, that your players have,” Vigneault said. “You try to implement them. Some nights it works, some nights it doesn’t.”