NYR VS OTTOttawa Senators must solve Henrik Lundqvist

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The Ottawa Senators didn't have captain Daniel Alfredsson and those left aboard the ship couldn't beat The King.

The Senators were left looking for the positives after a 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Scotiabank Place, but they're also shaking their heads and wondering what it's going to take to beat goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

Now trailing 2-1 in the series after Monday's loss in Game 3, the Senators are left looking for answers.

Playing without Alfredsson, left with a concussion after getting elbowed in the head by New York's Carl Hagelin in Game 2 on Saturday night, the Senators couldn't find a way to beat Lundqvist on the 39 shots he faced.

The Senators tried not to get down and aren't sure when they're going to have Alfredsson back. He took part in the morning skate and was a late scratch. He's listed as day-to-day and nobody is sure what day he'll return.

Being without him, wasn't an excuse.

"He's our captain, he's our leader and he's a guy that's put up a lot of points for us offensively and plays a lot of minutes," Senators winger Nick Foligno said of Alfredsson.

"We wanted to dig down and find a way to get a win without him. It's unfortunate he's not [playing], given the circumstances, but I thought we played pretty well without him."

Lundqvist was simply special.

"We've just got to find a way to get pucks in behind him. We did a lot, we worked a lot and we worked really hard  but we didn't get the result we were looking for," said Senators centre Jason Spezza.

"You work hard and we carried the play most of the night. We had lot of chances on them and we couldn't bury them. Its a little bit frustrating to leave without a win. We did a good job and we had a lot of scoring chances as a group."

What hurt the Senators the most was Brian Boyle broke this scoreless at 7:35 of the third by beating Craig Anderson with a backhander. The 20,182 in Ottawa booed Boyle every time he touched the puck after his antics in Game 1 punching Erik Karlsson in the head.

"Honestly, [the booing] was surprising," Boyle said. "If I'm the villain to them, that's good."

Boyle wouldn't have stood a chance without Lundqvist standing tall the way he did. He made a huge stop on Kyle Turris in the dying seconds that would have tied it up and sent it OT. No wonder they call him The King and he left the likes of Erik Karlsson shaking his head as well.

"We have an identity that we felt we had to cultivate in our locker room and every time he plays it starts with him," said Rangers head coach John Tortorella.

The Senators must find a way to beat Lundqvist and the Rangers Wednesday night in Game 4 (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7:30 p.m. ET) or face elimination Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

"We played really, really well," Anderson said. "It was unfortunate we couldn't find the back of the net.

"You put 40 shots on a guy, you'd think you're going to get one. That wasn't the case tonight.

"Every night, you're going to run into a hot goalie. Tonight, we got it.

"The other night, it was Jonathan Quick [in Los Angeles]. Hopefully, Wednesday it's me."

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