Senators vs. Rangers: Drake Batherson's Hat Trick Ends With a Wild Ricochet in a 7-4 Ottawa Win

Hat tricks are supposed to end with a snipe, a roar and a few hats on the ice. Drake Batherson's ended with him blocking an Adam Fox point shot and watching the puck carom the entire length of the rink into an empty net at 19:48 of the third. The hockey gods have a sense of humor.

"Obviously, a weird one, but I'll take it for sure," Batherson said after the Ottawa Senators beat the New York Rangers 7-4 on Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre. He finished with three goals and an assist for the third hat trick of his NHL career, Jake Sanderson scored the winner as part of a three-point night, and Jonas Johansson picked up a win in his Ottawa debut.

Ottawa Comes Out Swinging

The Senators were flying early. At 5:34 of the first, Sanderson walked into the slot and slid the puck out to Batherson on the wing, and Batherson beat Dylan Garand on the blocker side, with Artem Zub drawing the second assist. Just 1:06 later, Fabian Zetterlund found Tim Stutzle driving the net for a tap-in, with Claude Giroux also assisting. NHL.com noted it was Stutzle's third straight game with a goal and his league-leading sixth first-period goal of the season.

"I loved the start of our game," Ottawa coach Travis Green said.

Batherson made it 3-0 at 1:47 of the second, taking a quick kick-pass from Dylan Cozens alone in front and lifting it over Garand. At that point the Rangers looked like a team that had left its legs on the bus.

The Rangers Wake Up

New York finally got on the board in an unexpected way: while shorthanded. A blocked pass in the Rangers' end sprung Noah Laba and Will Cuylle on a 2-on-1, and Laba chipped it over to Cuylle alone in front at 10:07 for a 3-1 game.

Ottawa responded quickly. At 11:21, Cozens deflected a Batherson shot past Garand for his first goal of the season, with Carter Yakemchuk adding an assist. But the Rangers kept coming. J.T. Miller batted in a bouncing puck off a Fox feed at 12:54, and at 19:34, Alexis Lafreniere finished a 2-on-1 pass from Miller during 4-on-4 play for his ninth goal. Suddenly it was 4-3 heading to the third, and the building was a lot quieter.

Miller was blunt about the slow start that put New York in the hole. "They just were beating us to pucks, more physical, winning their puck battles," he said. Cuylle called the night "kind of a tale of two stories," with the Rangers far better after the first period.

Sanderson Steadies the Ship

The third was tense until Sanderson took over. At 13:38, Garand made the first stop on Ridly Greig, and Sanderson swooped in to backhand the rebound home for a 5-3 lead, with Michael Amadio also assisting. It was his first goal of the season, and NHL.com said it made him the sixth defenseman in Senators history to reach 40 career goals.

New York still would not go away. Pavel Dorofeyev one-timed a Cuylle pass at 15:32 to make it 5-4, the second time the Rangers had pulled within one. Amadio then hit the empty net at 18:47, with Johansson picking up an assist, and Batherson's long-distance ricochet put the final bow on it.

"Game's never over till it's over," Sanderson said.

Batherson and the Supporting Cast

Batherson's line read three goals, one assist, four hits and 15:11 of ice time. He now has seven goals this season, and NHL.com noted his three career hat tricks on home ice tie Dany Heatley and Marian Hossa for the most in Senators history. That is some serious company for a guy whose clincher was basically a bank shot from his own end.

Sanderson logged 23:51 and finished with a goal and two assists. Cozens and Amadio each had a goal and an assist. Johansson stopped 25 of 29 shots for an .862 save percentage, and Batherson made sure the new goalie got his flowers. "(Johansson) made some saves that ultimately kept us in it, and yeah, it was great to get him his first win, and he was pretty fired up," he said. NHL.com noted Tampa Bay traded Johansson to Ottawa on Sept. 25.

For New York, Fox had two assists in 24:34 and now has seven assists over his past three games. According to NHL.com, he has six points over consecutive games for the fourth time in his career, and only Brian Leetch (eight times) has done it more often as a Rangers defenseman. Miller and Cuylle each had a goal and an assist, and Laba added two assists. Garand stopped just 17 of 22 shots.

Turning Point: Sanderson's Rebound

The Rangers had erased most of a 4-1 deficit and carried the momentum into the third. Sanderson's rebound goal midway through the period restored a two-goal cushion, and even after Dorofeyev answered, New York never got the equalizer. Without it, Dorofeyev's goal would have tied the game.

Stats That Matter

• 34-21: Ottawa's edge in hits, which matches Miller's description of who won the puck battles.
• 29-24: New York's edge in shots. The Rangers outshot Ottawa and still lost by three.
• 19-13: Ottawa's edge in blocked shots.
• 0-for-5: The combined power plays. The only special-teams goal was Cuylle's shorthanded strike.
• 3: Batherson's career hat tricks.

What It Means

Ottawa improves to 8-4-0 with 16 points and 5-2-0 at home, and has won three of its past five. The Senators bounced back from a 6-2 home loss to San Jose on Thursday and now head out on the road, starting at Vegas on Tuesday. "Big win at home before a long road stand," Sanderson said.

The Rangers drop to 7-5-1 with 15 points and have lost two straight and four of five. The road has been brutal, too: New York is 1-5-1 away from home. They host Los Angeles on Monday night. "What's encouraging is I loved our compete and our fight, you know, to claw back into the game," coach Mike Sullivan said. "But it's hard to win chasing the game the way we did."

Pinball Wizard

Green summed it up after the game. "But it was a heck of a job for our team to get a win tonight," he said.

Batherson's final goal looked like a pinball bonus round, the kind of bounce that makes everybody in the building laugh. But the first two were the real thing, and on a night when Ottawa nearly let a three-goal lead slip away, his hat trick was the difference between a cautionary tale and a celebration.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.