G Anderson injures ankle in Senators' win

OTTAWA -- The dark cloud hanging over Scotiabank Place this season has burst once again on the Senators.

And they've managed to dry themselves off and find a way to smile.

Already with Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson, top center Jason Spezza and last year's leading goal scorer Milan Michalek on a lengthy injury list, the Senators lost goalie Craig Anderson to an ankle injury in the third period of their game against the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

They survived by getting a tying goal from rookie Mika Zibanejad with 6:30 left in the third period and the winner from fourth-liner Kaspars Daugavins in the seventh round of the shootout for a 3-2 victory over the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last spring.

Anderson went down when Rangers winger Chris Kreider slid into him. He had to be helped off the ice. The team said Anderson has an ankle sprain and listed him as day to day

"It is pretty much expected ... we're probably going to start a pool, 'Who's next?,'" captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "We're going to go with what we have and see what happens.

"It's never fun, especially when a player is playing as well as he is. We've got something going and, hopefully, it's nothing major and he can get back pretty quick. We've had guys that step in. We always talk about guys getting an opportunity and people have made the most of them."

The Senators recalled AHL all-star goalie Robin Lehner from Binghamton after the game.

Anderson, who has the best goals-against average and save percentage among the NHL's No. 1 goalies, had stopped all 21 shots he had faced at the time of the injury.

Kreider was racing toward the net with Senators defenseman Marc Methot before crashing into Anderson.

"I think his stick got tangled up in my skates and I lost my footing," Kreider said. "I

couldn't stop my momentum. I was going in so fast. It was a complete accident."

With Ben Bishop between the pipes as his replacement, the Rangers got goals 51 seconds apart from Ryan Callahan on the power play and Ryan McDonagh to take the lead.

"You could tell it demoralized us at first because (Anderson) is the heart and soul of our team," Methot said.

Zibanejad notched just the second goal of his career to set up a shootout that saw players fumble away chances, either by missing the net or having the puck slide off their stick

Daugavins, who has five goals in 78 career games and none this season, settled matters in a fitting way. Attempting to make a move on Henrik Lundqvist, the puck slid off his stick and trickled under the pads of the Rangers goalie.

"He obviously missed it. There's no way he tried to do that," said Lundqvist, who finished with 36 saves. "I poke-checked him and just lost the puck. It went in. Lucky bounce for them.

"There's nothing I hate more than losing a shootout, so I'm really frustrated right now. I'll get over it."

Daugavins, the most popular player among his teammates, acknowledged receiving a lucky break.

"We always knew he had a sick move," said Senators coach Paul MacLean, whose team is 3-1 since losing Karlsson. "I'm not a baseball manager, I'm a hockey coach, so I didn't know the batting order. I had him a little too low in the order. Good squeeze bunt."

Bishop stopped 11 of 13 shots but made a particularly big save in overtime off Marian Gaborik, who then hit the post after collecting the rebound.

"We had some chances to score in overtime, but that's how things have been going for us lately," Gaborik said. "We just have to keep plugging like that and luck is going to bounce on our side."

Rookie Jakob Silfverberg's first-period short-handed goal allowed the Senators to carry a lead through most of the night. Silfverberg, who had a game-high eight shots on net, also scored in the shootout.

Callahan scored the Rangers' only shootout goal.

NOTES: Rangers LW Rick Nash missed his second game with an undisclosed injury. ... Also scratched from the New York lineup was RW Arron Asham and D Steve Eminger. ... D Mike Lundin and C Jim O'Brien were the healthy Ottawa scratches. ... Senators LW Milan Michalek is expected to be back from a knee injury next week. Michalek led the team with 35 goals in 2011-12 but only has two goals in 13 games this season. ... Silfverberg had four shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes. ... Dropping the puck for the ceremonial opening faceoff was Brad Fritsch, the only PGA Tour card-carrying member to ever come out of Ottawa. ... The game was the 100th for Paul MacLean as Senators coach.