Henrik Lundqvist collects franchise

FRED CHARTRAND/The Canadian Press, AP

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist makes a save during his record-breaking night.

RANGERS 8, SENATORS 4

OTTAWA - Hockey's twilight zone truly is the place where a team scores eight goals and all its victorious goaltender can say is: 'I'm just happy it's over.'

That's how Henrik Lundqvist reacted to Tuesday night's 8-4 Rangers rout of the Ottawa Senators, in which he collected his franchise-record 302nd career victory, passing Mike Richter despite grievous defensive errors in the Rangers' zone from the opening faceoff to the final buzzer.

'It was a weird game. I felt pretty sharp, though,' said Lundqvist, who called the Rangers' effort 'sloppy.'

'It was just the way the game was played in the third, not really goalie friendly: A lot of swinging around and guys in the slot given a lot of time. I'm just happy it's over and I got the win.'

Derick Brassard (two goals), Benoit Pouliot, John Moore and Ryan McDonagh scored four unanswered goals in the second period in a span of 11 minutes to take a 5-2 lead. Lundqvist made the comeback possible by stopping forwards Colin Greening, Chris Neil and Ales Hemsky.

The Rangers (37-29-4, 78 points), continued to trade chances and goals throughout the third period. The victory and Columbus' 3-1 loss to Carolina vaulted the Blueshirts from a wild-card spot into sixth in the Conference and third in the Metropolitan Division.

'Of course it looks pretty good in the overall score, but they had a lot of good chances,' defenseman Anton Stralman said. 'I'm not going to say they were all self-caused, but we gave them way too many chances, and Hank played really well for us and made some big saves. We're happy we scored eight goals. We haven't scored a lot of goals this year, and that's a good feeling for a lot of guys that need to get some to feel more confident. So it's good for the team.'

The Flyers (79 points) recorded a 3-2 overtime victory over the Blackhawks to keep second place. Columbus (76 points) is two points behind the Rangers but holds two games in hand. The teams meet Friday in Ohio.

Rick Nash scored twice for the Rangers, once shorthanded in the first period and again on an empty-netter. The previously goal-starved Rangers eclipsed their total of the past four games (six) and set their season-high for goals in a game, chasing Ottawa's Robin Lehner.

FROM THE TOP: Garden chairman James Dolan went on such a large media tour to address Phil Jackson's reunion with the Knicks Tuesday afternoon that he even eventually discussed the other team he owns, the Rangers, in an interview on 'The Michael Kay Show' on ESPN 98.7.

Among the topics, Dolan backed Glen Sather's handling of the Ryan Callahan contract negotiations - 'Ryan essentially was asking too much for his services and was going to hamstring the team' - and called Alain Vigneault a 'very, very competent coach.'

Dolan said he 'anticipate(s) (the Rangers) will make the playoffs, but it's tight right now, so I'm a little concerned about it. But I've got a lot of confidence in this team.'

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