Don't look now, but the Ottawa Senators are in the midst of their best stretch of hockey of the season. At no time this season have the Senators won 6 games in any 10 game segment, even back in October when there was still hope.

Saturday's 6-3 win over the Rangers marked the Senators' 6th win in their last 9, and they have won 5 in a row on home ice, also another first for them this season.

Craig Anderson made 35 saves, marking wins in 5 straight decisions, although that has a bit of an asterisk as the Leafs game where he was pulled after 11+ minutes is in that stretch but the Senators managed to score enough to hang the L on Mike Condon and get Anderson out of the loss.

Derrick Brassard led the way offensively against his former squad, netting a goal and adding two assists for his third 3-point game of the season and first since October 22nd. Mark Stone got the Senators on the board early with his team leading 19th of the season just over a minute in, and Johnny Oduya fired home a great pass from Erik Karlsson to make it 2-0. The Senators never trailed or tied after that, with Matt Duchene, Brassard, Thomas Chabot and Magnus Paajarvi also finding the back of the net while former Senator Mika Zibanejad scored on a nice individual rush that was sandwiched by a couple of Michael Grabner tallies.

Starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist was pulled after the 5th Ottawa goal, and he was replaced by Brandon Halverson, who made his first NHL appearance and stopped all the shots he faced except one, coming on a goal-mouth scramble that the Rangers challenged for goaltender interference with Jean-Gabriel Pageau all over the crease, but it was called a goal on the ice and the officials didn't see enough to overturn the call.

So it is all sunshine and roses for the Senators, but unfortunately is much too little, far too late for this season as even during their best stretch of the season right now they are playing .667 hockey, while they would need to play close to .900 (44 points in their last 25 games) to get into playoff contention.

It is a bad loss for the Rangers, who have openly admitted they are looking to rebuild and divest themselves of some pending free agents and key pieces before the trade deadline despite being just four points out of a playoff spot heading into this one (now five back of the second wild-card spot).

Ottawa has reeled in the downward-spiraling Habs, who lost their third in a row in Vegas on Saturday, and they are now even in points with the Senators holding a game in hand. They also passed the Edmonton Oilers in the overall standings

The Senators next home game is Thursday night when they host the division leading Lightning, but they head out for a couple of games on the road before that. They will be looking for their first 3-game winning streak of the season on Monday night before stopping in Chicago Wednesday and returning home for the second half of a tough back to back against Tampa.

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