Tarasenko gets 3 points, Senators cruise past Rangers

OTTAWA -- Vladimir Tarasenko had two goals and an assist, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the New York Rangers 6-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

“First of all, we knew it was the best team in the League right now with the best record, I think,” Tarasenko said of New York. “We played well and, personally, it’s nice to score goals. It’s been a while, so we’ll try to do it more often.”

Brady Tkachuk scored two goals, and Drake Batherson had a goal and two assists for the Senators (10-10-0), who have won consecutive games after losing three in a row. Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist, Artem Zub and Erik Brannstrom each had two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 33 saves.

“It’s nice to be on a roll here,” said Forsberg, who has each of Ottawa’s past two wins. “I feel comfortable in my own game and I think the team is playing great. We’re creating a lot more and playing for each other, so it’s really fun out there right now.”

Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist, K'Andre Miller scored, and Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves for the Rangers (18-5-1), who had won three straight.

“There’s things we did that didn’t give ourselves the best chance at being successful,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “I think that they’re easy things to fix, but the second period was a track meet. I mean, it went up and down the ice at 100 miles an hour. One way going 100 is fine, but the other way, we have to have better reads and better decisions coming out of offensive zone play.”

Tkachuk gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 11:00 of the first period when he tipped in Zub’s point shot.

Giroux scored on the rebound off his own wraparound to make it 2-0 at 18:34.

Panarin beat Forsberg through traffic with a wrist shot from the point on the power play to cut it to 2-1 just 39 seconds into the second period. Mika Zibanejad extended his point streak to eight games (four goals, six assists) with the secondary assist.

“They’re a fast team,” Zibanejad said of the Senators. “They play fast and they took advantage of our, at times, sloppy play.”

Tarasenko elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 with Tim Stutzle and picked the top right corner short side to extend the lead to 3-1 at 5:13.

“It was great for ‘Vlady’ to score and score a highlight goal like that,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “It’s going to give him some confidence, and then he gets a second one. If you can get your top six rolling like that, you’re going to win some games.”

Forsberg stretched to make a pad save on Alexis Lafreniere, but Miller scored on the rebound to cut it to 3-2 at 5:35.

“That second period was run and gun: guys behind us, odd-man rushes,” Lafreniere said. “Just a sloppy one out of us and definitely one to forget.”

Batherson scored a rebound on the rush after Shesterkin saved Tarasenko’s shot to make it 4-2 at 7:18.

Tkachuk extended the lead to 5-2 at 17:43 when Zub’s broken-stick point shot bounced off the end boards to Tkachuk, who chipped it in at the side of the net.

“I think the changes that we’ve made over the last couple games are starting to show,” Tkachuk said. “Breakouts, neutral zone [play] and stuff like that, just little details to our game. So, I like where we’re heading and we just keep improving every single day.”

The Senators killed 1:25 of 5-on-3 man-advantage early in the third period to preserve the lead.

“Right now, that’s the best team in the NHL,” Smith said of the Rangers. “We held on to a lot of pucks. I think we did some really good things defensively, as well. And I think it was really good for our penalty kill to kill that 5-on-3 and get a bit of confidence. … I think that’s nine good periods in a row for us, and we’re starting to have a little bit of consistency.”

Tarasenko scored an empty-net goal for the 6-2 final at 17:10 of the third period.

“Just kind of turn the page,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “We lost the game. Obviously, we didn’t like how we played. You’re going to have some games like that. I think, get some rest, and get ready to play the next one.”

NOTES: New York forward Barclay Goodrow left the game midway through the first period after taking a puck to the face. Laviolette said Goodrow was still being evaluated. ... Tkachuk has six multigoal games this season, tied for the most in the NHL with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.. … Smith said defenseman Thomas Chabot, who did not dress due to an undisclosed injury, will not play Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. An announcement on his status is expected Wednesday.