Rangers Can’t Get Past Senators

By Daniel Feuerstein | Ottawa, ON | October 24th, 2026

The New York Rangers continued on their Ontario road trip as they moved from Toronto to the Capital of Canada to face the Ottawa Senators, and once again, another poor start on the road as the Rangers continue to have bad starts. While they tried to make a comeback, the Senators still found ways to take advantage of poor defending and convert on grade-A chances to get the lead and keep it. After 60 minutes of hockey, the Senators earned the victory as they defeated the Rangers by the final score of 7-4.

Rangers cough up the first three goals

The Rangers were flooded with bodies in front of them around the net and along the end boards as they tried to help Dylan Garand clear the puck or allow him to see. Instead, they got bombarded, giving up the first three goals of the game, especially when Garand was screened by the Senators and his own teammates. Drake Batherson took advantage as Garand lost the puck, and when he did get towards the far post, Batherson already had a spot and scored at 5:34 of the first period. Then the second goal came when Braden Schneider couldn’t keep the puck inside the Senators’ zone, and off to the races they went.

Claude Giroux began the rush, then it was a two-on-three, but no matter how it ended, the Rangers got scored on again when Fabian Zetterlund made the cross-ice pass and found Tim Stutzle to bang it home at 6:40 of the first period. But the start of the second period was difficult. The initial shot was stopped, and the Senators grabbed the rebound to recycle the play. From down low to the point for some quick passing, and when Dylan Cozens sent the shot at the net, the rebound was there for Batherson as he stuffed the rebound for his second of the game at 1:47 of the second period.

A little life, then back down

The Rangers were down by three, and it felt like this one was going towards how they were blown out of the rink in Newark. But that first goal was finally pocketed when the Rangers took advantage of a lucky bounce as the Senators were on the power play. Adam Fox steals the puck, and Noah Laba picks it up. It’s a two-on-one, and when they entered the zone, Laba dishes it off to Will Cuylle, and he snaps one in for the Rangers’ second Short-Handed goal of the season at 10:07 of the second period. But unfortunately, the Rangers got beaten again.

As the Senators were still on the power play, the penalty clock was counting down towards the end. Once the Rangers killed off the penalty, they were trying to get possession back and head down the ice, but they couldn’t do it as the Senators were still buzzing around the Rangers’ net and making it difficult for them to try and stop them. After a couple of passes and a shot or two were stopped, it was Dylan Cozins who deflected the puck past Garand to get the three-goal lead back at 11:21 of the second period.

Cutting the deficit down to one

The Rangers were starting to play better, and they got down to business by getting a bit more physical. The puck was around the boards, and it all started around the end boards as the Rangers were looking to chip away at the Senators’ lead. When the puck came towards Adam Fox, he quickly settled and took the shot at the net. As the puck was stopped, it took a bounce and went behind the goal, but J.T. Miller skated in quickly as he caught the bounce off the ice and swatted the puck into the net at 12:54 of the second period.

The Rangers continued to get another goal, and within the final minute of the period, they got another one from their red-hot goal scorer. They took advantage of poor puck possession, and J.T. Miller picked it up and was off to the races. It quickly became a two-on-one when Alexis Lafreniere joined in on the play. When they entered the Senators’ zone. Miller made a cross-ice pass to Lafreniere, who quickly snapped it in, and the deficit is now down to one. The goal was scored at 19:34 of the second period.

Down again by two, then back down to one

It was a tough battle for the Rangers and Senators as the next goal would be status quo, or a brand new hockey game. The Rangers tried to get that tying goal, but once again they were beaten. After the Rangers had a shot or two on the Ottawa net, the Senators quickly moved up the ice and were given plenty of room to skate in and to make their passes connect. Michael Amadio carried the puck down the ice and entered the Rangers’ zone. Started to make a solid pass to Ridley Greig, who took the shot and was stopped by Garand, but the rebound was loose, and Jake Sanderson picked up the puck and put it home at 13:38 of the third period.

The Rangers continued to skate and showed they were still kicking and wanted to cut the deficit back down to one. Noah Laba with the puck and carried it into the Senators’ zone. While he was met with some defenders, he was able to push the puck to his right, and it was picked up by Will Cuylle. He skated in, made a quick back pass to Pavel Dorofeyev, and with a hammer of a shot, he ripped it off the iron and into the net at 15:32 of the third period. A big goal for Dorofeyev and a big goal for the Rangers to try to force a tying goal.

The Empty net ends the night

The Rangers tried to get that fifth goal to tie the game, but they couldn’t get it. Garand was pulled for an extra attacker, but the Senators were able to get the puck twice and scored two empty-net goals to officially end the game. Michael Amadio scored at 18:47 of the third period, and then Drake Batherson got his hat trick at 19:48 of the third period. Dylan Garand once again has played well, but his teammates haven’t given him enough to help him keep the puck out of the net on the road. While the Rangers have been perfect at home, their road form has been terrible. A win, five losses, and an overtime loss for three points is not good enough. While they are still in second place behind the defending Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes, the Rangers need to rack up wins away from Madison Square Garden.

“Ottawa is, give them credit, they’re a stingy defensive team. This game was played in the trenches. You know, I think it was, we had to fight for every inch, you know. I thought it was more about, you know, our start, obviously. We weren’t ready from a pace standpoint, the intensity standpoint. We spotted them two goals. What’s encouraging is I loved our compete and our fight, you know, to claw back into the game. But it’s hard to win when you’re chasing the game the way we did. But as I said, I give our guys a lot of credit.

I thought we competed hard to, you know, to pull ourselves back into the game and make it a hockey game. We got it within one. You know, I thought our third period was our best. You know, we were so close to tying it up. I don’t know how many times, you know, we couldn’t seem to get the game tied. But I think the moral of the story is, you know, some of the looks they got were still too high quality for me. That might be a similarity to Toronto. And we just gave them too much off the rush tonight. And, you know, they’ve got a lot of high-end skill over there,” said Mike Sullivan

MULTI-POINTERS: Four different Rangers skaters recorded multi-point games tonight: Will Cuylle (1G-1A), J.T. Miller (1G-1A), Adam Fox (2A) and Noah Laba (2A).

ADAM FOX: Notched his fourth multi-assist game of the season. Through the first 13 games of the season, he has recorded 16 assists, tying Jaromir Jagr for the most assists by a Ranger in franchise history in that span. Registering his 34th career multi-assist period, he surpassed Walt Tkaczuk for the seventh-most in Rangers history. He has tallied six points over his last two games (6A) for the fourth time in his career, with Brian Leetch being the only other defenseman with more instances (8x).

ALEXIS LAFRENIERE: Scored his ninth goal of the season and extended his point streak to three straight games (2G-2A). He leads the Rangers and is tied for third in the NHL with nine goals.

WILL CUYLLE: Scored his third career shorthanded goal this evening, his fourth goal of the season.

OLIVER BJORKSTRAND: Extended his point streak to three straight games (3G-1A).

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