Tkachuk tallies 200th goal as Senators crush Rangers

NEW YORK (AP) — Brady Tkachuk scored his 200th regular-season NHL goal and had three assists, and the Ottawa Senators handed the New York Rangers a fifth consecutive loss, beating them 8-4 on Wednesday night.

Tkachuk, a St. Louis native who is set to play for the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Olympics, helped set up Drake Batherson's goal on the power play 2:18 in and Dylan Cozens' with 5.7 seconds left in the first period. Adding goals from Nick Jensen and Tkachuk in between, the Senators scored four in a period at Madison Square Garden for the first time in their 33-season franchise history.

Home fans booed their team off the ice at the first intermission after a lackluster 20 minutes, and it did not get much better until long after the outcome had been determined. The Rangers lost for the 17th time in 22 games at the Garden and are now in last place in the Eastern Conference.

Jonathan Quick allowed six goals on 17 shots before getting the mercy pull and relieved by Spencer Martin a little past the midway point of the second. Quick was hardly to blame for New York's eighth defeat in nine games, with mistakes by teammates in front of him putting the veteran goaltender in all sorts of difficult positions.

At the other end of the rink, Leevi Merilainen, making his ninth consecutive start in Linus Ullmark’s absence, had 18 saves and allowed two goals to Gabe Perreault and one apiece to Noah Laba and Alexis Lafrenière.

Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot and David Perron also scored and Tim Stutzle had an empty-net goal as the Senators won on back-to-back nights, following up on beating Vancouver at home on Tuesday to snap their losing streak at four.

Up next

Senators: Host the rival Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Rangers: Visit Philadelphia on Saturday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl