Nedved's late score lifts Rangers over Senators

NEW YORK -- The puck landed on the stick of exactly the right player.

Petr Nedved's off-balance wrist shot with 1:01 left gave the New York Rangers a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday.

"He's the guy you want it to go to," New York's Theo Fleury said. "It popped loose and he'll bury it every time."

Fleury added two power-play goals for New York and Brian Leetch, with two assists, now has seven assists in the last five games.

The Rangers made a final push to win the game in regulation. With a mad scramble in front of Ottawa's Patrick Lalime, a rebound spat out to Nedved, who flipped it high -- and hard.

"He's got that high heat in close," Rangers coach Ron Low said. "He can shoot with the best of them."

Nedved called the game "a bit ugly in the end" but was happy for his opportunity.

"There was a lot of traffic, but I figured the best thing to do was to put it up high," Nedved said. "It worked out pretty good."

Ottawa's Wade Redden tied the game at 2 at 12:51 of the third on a power play when he chipped in Daniel Alfredsson's shot.

Zdeno Chara scored an unassisted shorthanded goal for the Senators.

Ottawa had a goal disallowed late in the third when the video judge decided Ivan Ciernik kicked the puck through Mike Richter's legs.

"Richter made the initial save and the puck went off my skate into the net," Ciernik said. "I didn't kick it in. It's always questionable. It's the referee's call."

The Senators' three-game unbeaten streak on the road ended, partly because of penalties. Ottawa totaled 26 minutes, including two minutes for having too many men on the ice and a 10-minute misconduct to Alfredsson, the captain, for arguing with an official.

"I guess we were a little frustrated," Alfredsson said.

At 12:10 of the second period, Fleury broke a 1-1 tie when he skated in from the boards -- perfectly timing his approach -- and easily redirected Vladimir Malakhov's shot into the net for his second power-play goal of the day.

"Sure, it's disappointing," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. "Definitely a lack of discipline with so many penalties. They got two goals on the power play. We got one -- that was the difference."

Richter had to make some crucial stops after Ottawa breakaways in the second period, including a pouncing save on Martin Havlat's shot and a stretching kick save on Shawn McEachern.

After Fleury put the Rangers up 2-1, Richter made two stick saves out of traffic in front of his net. He finished with 23 saves.

Lalime stopped 26 for Ottawa and was strong late in the third period as the Rangers made the late rush.

Chara, the 6-foot-9 former New York Islander, scored a shorthanded goal to give the Senators a brief lead in the first. With teammate Shane Hnidy in the penalty box, Chara skated the length of the ice, closing in on Richter's left, and wristed a shot high to open the scoring.

"I was just trying to get the puck out of our end, but when I pushed it out I saw I was clear so I started to skate with it. I decided to shoot and the puck went in."

New York tied it at 1 with a two-man advantage 1:09 later.

With Hnidy joined by Marian Hossa in the box, the Rangers patiently passed around on the power play. Leetch finally passed down to Mike York, who sent it quickly back. Leetch's hard point shot was deflected in by Fleury, positioned just outside the crease, at 15:00.

It was the Rangers' first 5-on-3 goal this season.

Notes: Matthew Barnaby scored his first point of the season with an assist on Nedved's game-winner. "We got him for a reason," Fleury said. "He was relentless on the puck and he caused the turnover that got it to (Nedved)." . . . New York's Mark Messier sat out his third straight game with injuries. An MRI on Saturday showed the captain has a shoulder sprain. Messier, who also has back pain, has 39 points in 30 career games vs. the Senators. . . . Chara was traded, along with Bill Muckalt and the No. 1 overall draft pick, to Ottawa for Alexei Yashin. . . . Lalime got the start, a day after Jani Hurme recorded a shutout of New Jersey.