Sather still winless as Rangers' head coach

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators used their best weapon to snap their worst losing streak of the season.


Todd White scored two of the Senators' three power-play goals to lift Ottawa to a 5-3 victory Wednesday night over the New York Rangers. The Senators entered with the second best power-play unit in the NHL and used it well to end their second three-game losing streak.

The Senators are tied with New Jersey atop the Eastern Conference with 73 points.

"We played a lot better tonight,'' said Patrick Lalime, who made 26 saves. "We came back to the way we used to play. The power play was the difference again.''

White also assisted on Wade Redden's goal in the first period, and Radek Bonk added a goal for Ottawa, which had lost the first three games of its four-game road trip that spanned the All-Star break.

"We felt we ran out of gas,'' Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. "We had a tough schedule and we weren't sharp last week.''

Redden, Daniel Alfredsson and Karel Rachunek all had two assists for the Senators. Alfredsson scored an empty-net goal with 18 seconds left.

New York got all of its goals on special teams. Bobby Holik and Eric Lindros scored on the power play, and Petr Nedved added a short-handed goal.

The Rangers fell to 0-1-0-1 under coach-general manager Glen Sather, who took over last week for the fired Bryan Trottier, and have lost five straight overall. Sather warned his club not to give the Senators extra chances by taking penalties, but New York handed Ottawa seven power plays.

"We've got to be smarter than that,'' said Rangers forward Matthew Barnaby, who took a high-sticking penalty that New York killed off. "We took some stupid penalties and it cost us.''

The Rangers only have two remaining home games in February and still sit well outside the playoff race. New York plays at St. Louis, Philadelphia and Florida, before returning home on Feb. 14.

"We have to win games, home or road, it doesn't really matter,'' Holik said. "It's a tough month ahead of us.''

White scored his 19th goal by getting to a loose puck and putting it past Mike Dunham 8:23 into the third, 1:15 after Sandy McCarthy went off for holding.

The Rangers tied it 3-3 with their second power-play goal. Lindros' quick shot from the blue line got between the pads of Patrick Lalime with Holik in front.

Ottawa was trailing 2-1 when the second period began, but Bonk and White scored power-play goals 3:11 apart to give the Senators the lead. Ottawa was given six straight power plays after a penalty wasn't called on New York's Cory Cross when he struck the Senators' Zdeno Chara with a high stick.

"We started killing penalties and it was only a matter of time until they took advantage,'' Rangers captain Mark Messier said.

The Senators were then short-handed four times in a row until McCarthy's penalty.

"We just kept going,'' Redden said. "It was a back-and-forth game. Usually a team gets a lead it's pretty safe. We gave up that late goal in the second but we stuck with it and battled through to get the win.''

Redden made it 1-0 at 7:21 of the first. Alfredsson made a drop pass in the right circle to White, who found Redden in the slot for the goal.

The Rangers tied it 2:23 later when Holik followed up his hard shot that bounced around near the left side of the net. He charged in and knocked the 6-foot-9 Chara off the puck and tucked it into the corner.

With 2:02 left in the period, Radek Dvorak forced a turnover at the New York blue line and raced down the right side on a two-on-one with Nedved. Dvorak slid a pass across that got under Rachunek -- who was flat on his stomach -- and onto Nedved's stick. Nedved moved around Lalime and scored his 20th goal, his second while short-handed.

Game notes
New York recalled G Johan Holmqvist and D Richard Lintner after the game. ... Cross strained an abdominal muscle in the first period and didn't return. He is day-to-day. Another New York D, Vladimir Malakhov, didn't play because of back spasms. ... Forwards Josh Langfield, Toni Dahlman, and Brad Smyth were recalled from Binghamton of the AHL to fill in for Magnus Arvedson (personal reasons), Marian Hossa (flu) and Petr Schastlivy (groin), who didn't make Ottawa's trip. ... The Rangers held a 29-22 shots advantage.