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Alfredsson, Emery shine as Senators blank Rangers

Dec 30, 2006 - 7:37 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- A cold offense and a hot Ray Emery spelled trouble for the New York Rangers.

Daniel Alfredsson scored the lone goal of the game and Emery made 27 saves for his second straight shutout as the Ottawa Senators posted a 1-0 victory over the Rangers, who have lost seven in a row and were blanked for the second consecutive contest.

Goalless since 8:17 of the second period of their 4-3 loss at Tampa Bay on Saturday, the Rangers ran into a red-hot goaltender in Emery, who posted his second shutout of the season Wednesday against the New York Islanders. In this one, Emery stopped four shots in the first period, 14 in the second and nine in the third en route to his sixth career blanking.

"With our defense playing so well in our zone, I just have to wait for them to shoot," Emery said. "They tried to sneak it through me a few times, but the defense held the line. If we put our minds to it and make a conscious effort to play well defensively, I know the guys have the ability to do it."

Making his ninth straight home start, Emery extended his shutout streak to 131 minutes, 7 seconds.

"If you get a goalie who stops all the shots, you should win," Alfredsson said. "We did a lot of good things and Ray kept them out. ... (Henrik) Lundqvist kept them in the game and gave them a chance, but Ray did one better. Ray looked real comfortable making great saves and when playing the puck behind the net. He is the best part of our penalty kill."

Alfredsson gave Emery all the support he needed in the first minute of the game. Ottawa's captain netted his 10th goal of the campaign just 32 seconds into the contest, and it held up as the Rangers matched their longest losing streak in regulation since March 1995, when they also dropped seven straight.

"It would be great to start off every game like that with a goal on the first shift," Alfredsson said.

"I didn't expect the first goal to be the game-winner between these two teams," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "I'm certain we'll figure out how to win if we keep this work ethic. I'm not sure the other teams are doing as much to us as we are doing to ourselves."

Lundqvist made 27 saves for the Rangers, whose longest skid in franchise history came in 1943-44, when they dropped 11 in a row.

"We've played well the past two nights," Lundqvist said. "Maybe if we can get our passing better, it might help us. We need to get in front of them and get screens. The key may be for our power play to score a few more goals. Other than that, I feel we're playing really well right now."

"If we keep playing like that, we'll work ourselves out of this slump," Renney added. "That has to be our motto to move forward, to work 60 minutes and not just 40."

Before many of the fans even got to their seats, Alfredsson provided the only offense of the night. Stationed in front of the net, the Swedish star deflected defenseman Chris Phillips' blast from the left point past Lundqvist, extending his points streak to five games.

"I gave it to (Dany) Heatley, who came around and his shot was blocked, but it came out to Phillips," Alfredsson said. "I was parked in front and was able to get the shaft of my stick on it. It deflected down to the ice and through the goalie's legs." "I knew Alfredsson would probably touch that puck, but I still had to go for it," Lundqvist said. "I challenged, but it found the five-hole. It was a tough goal."