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Kelly's hat trick powers Senators over Rangers

Dec 6, 2010 - 1:34 AM New York, NY (Sports Network) - Chris Kelly lit the lamp three times, including the game-winner with 2:24 left to play to lift Ottawa past the New York Rangers, 3-1, at Madison Square Garden.

Kelly completed the first hat trick of his career on an open netter with one second left for Ottawa, which snapped a three-game slide. Pascal Leclaire turned away 25 shots to get his second win of the season.

Brandon Prust scored the lone goal for the Rangers, who were coming off a home-and-home sweep of the New York Islanders. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 22- of-24 shots to record the loss.

"For me it was a tough one to eat because it was still a winnable game," said New York head coach John Tortorella. "I thought we did some really good things. We got some good looks with the power play but we couldn't finish. As poorly as we started, I thought we regrouped and we could have won it."

The Senators took a 2-1 lead late in the contest when Jarkko Ruutu gathered the puck behind the net and was able to find a streaking Kelly, who finished the play with 2:24 showing on the clock.

New York pulled Lundqvist for the last 1:21, however, they were unable to find the equalizer, while Kelly's blue line shot found the empty net just before the clock turned to zeros.

After a scoreless first period, the Sens registered a shorthanded goal after Rangers forward Derek Stepan mishandled the puck at the right point. Kelly poked the puck forward and took it the distance, finishing with a wrister past Lundqvist at the 4:27 mark of the second period.

New York evened the score midway through the same frame with its own shorthanded goal, when Prust took a Brian Boyle pass down the right side and wristed it top shelf past Leclaire.

Game Notes

Lundqvist is 8-11-0 against Ottawa...Leclaire improved his record to 2-6-1 this season...Ottawa had four penalties, while the Rangers only had one...The Rangers took three of four from Ottawa last season.