Sens vs. Rangers - Game #2 Preview

The Sens and Rangers are set to tangle for Game #2 of their second round series today at 3 p.m. at Canadian Tire.

Ottawa heads into Game #2 fairly healthy with the only question marks at the moment being Mark Borowiecki and Tom Pyatt who have both been listed as day-to-day for over a week. Head coach Guy Boucher shared at his media availability yesterday that Pyatt has been cleared to return but they may wait on re-inserting him into the line-up since the current group of forwards have been playing so well.
Today's game also marks the third afternoon game of the post-season for the Senators who have gone 2-0 in both their previous 3 p.m. starts with their most recent being their series-clinching overtime win in Boston 6 days ago.

Previous game

The Sens came out flying in Game #1 and actually set a franchise record for shots on goal in a post-season period with 21 but it wasn't until shot #33 that Ryan Dzingel was able to finally beat Henrik Lundqvist to get the Sens on the board. Sens captain Erik Karlsson played the hero once again for Ottawa scoring the game winning goal from a no business angle to lead his squad past the Rangers to open the series. In goal, Craig Anderson was marvelous stopping 33 of the 34 shots sent his way and earned the game's first star honours as a result.
Check out the full highlights from that game below...

Sens to watch

Seems obvious to start with the engine that's been driving the Senators all playoffs and that's Erik Karlsson. The captain netted his first goal of this post-season in Game #1 and it couldn't have come at a better time. Karlsson has 7 points (1G + 6A) in 7 games so far and has recorded at least a point in 6 of the Sens' 7 playoff games this year. His 7 points are tops among defencemen in the playoffs and he also leads in TOI/game (30:11) by over a full minute (Minnesota's Ryan Suter is second with 29:06).

We trumpted Craig Anderson's career numbers against the Rangers yesterday but I'm not sure too many people expected him to improve on them as much as he did in Game #1. As mentioned above, Anderson was a rock in goal on Thursday night and in 3 games against the Rangers this season he's now 3-0-0 and has stopped 87 of the 89 shots he's faced over that span.

Red Zone

The weather has been cooperating so far this post-season and we've got another beautiful day lined up for today's pre-game activities in the Red Zone. Things are set to kick off at noon so if you're coming to the game be sure to get here early for the music, face-painting, food and general party atmosphere.
Click here
for more details about the Red Zone.

Broadcast

Can't make it to CTC today? Catch all the action on CBC, NBC and TVAS2 or if you are in need of a great spot to watch the game with other rabid Sens fans check out our list of official Sens Army Headquarters for the playoffs
here
.