Music: {allcanada} Rangers top Senators, Hammond, clinch playoff berth

Thursday, March 26, 2015

{allcanada} Rangers top Senators, Hammond, clinch playoff berth

Brad Pitt / Britney Spears / Colin Farrell / Angelina Jolie

OTTAWA -- The New York Rangers became the first team to clinch a berth in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs with their 5-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

Chris Kreider had two goals and an assist for the Rangers. Dan Boyle, Mats Zuccarello and Tanner Glass also scored for New York (47-19-7), which had an opportunity to clinch the playoff berth with a win after the Boston Bruins lost 3-2 in overtime to the Anaheim Ducks.

Curtis Lazar scored for the Senators (37-25-11), who hung on to the second wild card into playoffs in the Eastern Conference with the Bruins loss. Ottawa and Boston each has 85 points, but the Senators have played one fewer game.

It was the first regulation loss in Ottawa goalie Andrew Hammond's 17-game NHL career; he started 14-0-1. Hammond was pulled in the second period after giving up five goals on 22 shots.

The Senators lost in regulation for the third time in their past 22 games (17-3-2).

Rangers goaltender Cam Talbot made 23 saves for the victory. He is 16-4-3 since taking over the starter's role after an injury to Henrik Lundqvist, who is expected to return this weekend.

Lundqvist, who sustained a vascular injury in his neck in early February, backed up Talbot on Thursday.

Zuccarello scored his 14th of the season to put the Rangers up 4-1 at 1:42 of the second period, and then New York's penalty-killers took over.

The Senators had a great opportunity to get back in the game when the Rangers took three straight penalties beginning at 10:02 of the second period. The first two were assessed to Rick Nash, and Tanner Glass was called for slashing with 34 seconds left in Nash's second penalty.

The Rangers killed off all three shorthanded situations, and Glass came out of the penalty box, took a pass from Kevin Hayes and scored on a shot to the stick side to make it 5-1 at 16:02 of the second.

Senators coach Dave Cameron pulled Hammond shortly after that, and Chris Driedger, who had been called up from Evansville of the ECHL, made his NHL debut.

Kreider had two goals and an assist in the first period, and the Rangers took a 3-1 lead and made Hammond look quite ordinary in the process.

Kreider scored the first goal of the game on a wonderful indirect pass by Derek Stepan. After a failed rush that was led by Senators defenseman Cody Ceci, Stepan got up a head of steam from the top of the left-wing circle in the Rangers zone.

Stepan's pass banked off the boards, and with Ceci caught up ice, Kreider had room to wind up and let a shot go that found the net on Hammond's stick side at 12:38.

The Senators tied it 19 seconds later on Lazar's fifth goal. Rangers defenseman Keith Yandle couldn't handle a bouncing puck, and Lazar broke in and scored to the glove side.

Boyle gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead when Nash found the veteran defenseman in the slot after he joined the rush. Boyle's shot from the slot went in about halfway up the net on Hammond's glove side at 14:40.

Hammond gave up a rare weak goal with a minute to go in the period. A shot by Stepan from the left wing bounced off him and went up in the air, falling behind him in the crease. Kreider pounced on the loose puck for his 20th goal and a 3-1 Rangers lead.

Dale Earnhardt Jr / Daytime Soap Operas / Fashion Models