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Taking care of business: Senators blank Rangers

Chris Kreider, Andrew Hammond

Chris Kreider, Andrew Hammond

AP

The Ottawa Senators still need some help to make the playoffs, but they’re doing whatever they can to make life difficult for the teams ahead of them in the East race.

After a sluggish start in a 0-0 first period against the New York Rangers, the Senators took over in the middle frame, eventually earning an enormous 3-0 win.

Kyle Turris continues to be a huge difference-maker for the Senators, as he (as well as Clarke MacArthur) factored into the first two tallies with a goal and an assist. Of course, Andrew Hammond stood out the most as usual, stopping 26 shots for his third shutout and 19th win of the season. “The Hamburglar” is now a ridiculous 19-1-2 as he continues his storybook season.

At the moment, the Senators find themselves with 97 points and one game left, placing themselves in the first wild card spot over Boston and Pittsburgh ... at least for the moment.

Ottawa has some tiebreaker disadvantages, so they’ll be doing some serious scoreboard watching for the rest of tonight and also tomorrow. At least they don’t have to think up fantastical situations for good things to happen after this win, however.

With the Presidents’ Trophy locked up for New York, the Rangers rested a lot of people, and dodged a bullet when Henrik Lundqvist was shaken up in the first period. (He seems OK, though.)

Considering how bleak things were for the Senators when they fired Paul MacLean, it’s remarkable how far they’ve come. We’ll find out if it will be enough very soon.