Senators Beat Rangers 7-4 as Batherson Hat Trick Leads Ottawa

Drake Batherson scored a hat trick and added an assist as the Ottawa Senators beat the New York Rangers 7-4 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night. Ottawa led 2-0 after the first period, survived a three-goal Rangers second period, and scored three times in the third to close it out.

Batherson's third goal was the last of the night, an unassisted score at 19:48 of the third period, a minute after Michael Amadio had made it 6-4 at 18:47 with help from Jake Sanderson. Sanderson finished with a goal and two assists. Jonas Johansson made 24 saves on 28 shots for Ottawa, while Dylan Garand stopped 17 of 22 shots for New York before the late empty-net sequence settled the score.

How the game turned

Ottawa built the early lead and Batherson got his second goal two minutes into the second period, burying a puck that bounced to him in front after Jordan Spence shot from the blue line and Dylan Cozens got a piece of the rebound. The Rangers answered with a short-handed goal from Will Cuylle, set up by Noah Laba on a two-on-one after Adam Fox blocked a shot. Cozens restored Ottawa's three-goal lead soon after, tipping in a backhand pass from Batherson behind the net.

New York kept coming. J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, and Pavel Dorofeyev scored in the third to make it 5-4 after Sanderson had scored his first goal of the season. With Garand pulled, Ottawa scored into the empty net and Batherson completed his hat trick in the final seconds.

The shots told a different story from the score. New York outshot Ottawa 28-24 and lost by three, a night when Ottawa's finishing and its goaltending held up better than the Rangers' road game, which has become a talking point in New York: the Rangers play well in stretches away from home and pay for sloppy errors.

What it means

Ottawa's record moved to 8-4 and New York's to 7-5 with the result, in a meeting of two teams that arrived level. A hat trick from Batherson, who led all scorers with four points, is the kind of night Ottawa needs from its top six if it is going to stay near the top of its division. For the Rangers, the road concern grows: they generated shots, scored four, and still left Ottawa with nothing.