Pageau scores twice for Senators in win against Rangers

NEW YORK -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored two goals, and the Ottawa Senators won for the third time in five games with a 6-2 victory against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

Vladislav Namestnikov and Brady Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa (4-8-1), which got its first road win in six tries this season (1-4-1). Ron Hainsey and Tyler Ennis also scored, and Anders Nilsson made 32 saves.
The Senators went 2-for-6 on the power play; they were 2-for-42 in their first 12 games.
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Rangers highlights]
"We earned all our chances here tonight," Senators coach D.J. Smith said.
Kaapo Kakko had his first multipoint game in the NHL (one goal, one assist) for New York (5-6-1), which won its previous two games. Artemi Panarin also scored, and Alexandar Georgiev made 24 saves in his third straight start.
"They were competing and battling and it looked like as the game went on we were getting upset that they were actually doing that," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "We've got to learn to handle these things. The last two games (against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators) we did it, and this game we didn't. It cost us severely."

Kakko gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 8:47 of the first period with his third goal of the season. New York outshot Ottawa 10-0 before Mikkel Boedker's chance at 11:23 of the first period.
But the Senators rallied following a fight between Mark Borowiecki and Brendan Lemieux with 6:17 remaining in the first. They scored the next five goals in a 20-minute span that started at 14:56 when Pageau tied it 1-1, scoring from the slot after Anthony Duclair missed on a wraparound.
"Once we got back, I thought we started putting pucks behind them, started shooting more pucks, started blocking shots, started hitting them," Pageau said. "I think a couple battles, a couple fights that gave us the momentum. Guys stepped up for themselves and for their teammates."
Ennis made it 2-1 with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 18:31. Tkachuk helped create the 5-on-3 opportunity by baiting Ryan Strome into a roughing minor at 17:07 and then moving his feet to force Brady Skjei to trip him 49 seconds later.
The Rangers seemed frustrated by Tkachuk all game, and it culminated with Lemieux going after him and drawing a 10-minute misconduct with 6:56 remaining in the third period.
"He's an agitating player and we played right into his hands, that's all you can say," Quinn said. "On top of being an agitating player, he's a really good player. This game is about managing emotions and not getting distracted, and we had a few too many guys get distracted."
Hainsey scored from the slot off a backhand pass from Tkachuk one second after another power play expired to make it 3-1 at 4:12 of the second period.
Pageau gave the Senators a 4-1 lead at 11:43 on a breakaway he created by blocking Pavel Buchnevich's shot with his shins, chipping the puck up the ice and outracing everybody to it inside the far blue line.
Tkachuk scored from the slot to extend the lead to 5-1 at 14:56.
Panarin's power-play goal made it 5-2 of 17:34 of the second period.
Namestnikov, traded by the Rangers to Ottawa on Oct. 7, scored a power-play goal at 5:35 of the third period for the 6-2 final.
"Once the rough stuff started, that kind of dragged us into the battle and we played hard," Smith said.

They said it

"He's annoying, obviously, I think for the other team. He's big. He competes every shift. He's just playing his role so well. It's impressive to see at this age (20), a guy that can show up every night and be a distraction for the other team but also a great player for our team and a great teammate. We're lucky to have him." -- Senators center Jean-Gabriel Pageau on forward Brady Tkachuk
"I don't know what changed about our mentality, but we got away from it and started cheating the game, didn't respect our opponent. They had a bit of a pushback. Any time you start tilting the ice against a team, they're going to have a pushback. I don't know if we just weren't ready for it or what, but we got off our game and didn't find it again. That's been a recurring issue for us on and off 12 games into the season." -- Rangers forward Chris Kreider

Need to know

The Senators hadn't won on the road since April 3, also against the Rangers. … Ottawa forward Bobby Ryan had one shot on goal in 14:32 after being a healthy scratch the previous two games. … Center Mika Zibanejad missed his third straight game for New York because of an upper-body injury. He is day to day. … Panarin extended his point streak to five games (two goals, four assists). … The Rangers scratched defenseman Marc Staal for a third straight game.

What's next

Senators: At the New York Islanders on Tuesday (Barclays Center, 7 p.m. ET; MSG+, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)
Rangers: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS)