Senators 2, Rangers 1, SO .

NEW YORK — Erik Karlsson scored the lone goal of the shootout in the fifth round and the Ottawa Senators snapped the New York Rangers' longest winning streak of the season with a 2-1 victory Thursday night.

Craig Anderson and Rangers counterpart Henrik Lundqvist both made 29 saves through overtime and both denied the first four shooters in the tie-breaker. Anderson got some help in the fifth round when Ryan Callahan got off a weak shot because his stick broke on the attempt.

Karlsson then solved Lundqvist, a fellow Swede, to win it.

"We're from the same country, but you don't really think about that too much," Karlsson said. "I wanted to shoot low glove. I just made a little move and there it was."

The game mattered much more to the Rangers, the seventh-place team in the Eastern Conference. New York closed to within two points of sixth-place Montreal, which lost 7-0 at Boston, with seven games left.

The Rangers have a four-point cushion over Buffalo and a seven-point edge on Carolina, the team just below the post-season cutoff. Both pursuers have played two fewer games.

Ryan Shannon gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead in the second, but Brandon Prust tied it early in the third.

The Senators are last in the East, but aren't packing it in down the stretch.

"We're not going to let up," coach Cory Clouston said. "We keep pushing the players. They responded very well. We did a good job of creating momentum right at the start and we did a good job of taking the crowd out. You see the energy they got from the crowd after they got that goal. We just wanted to keep it simple and get the momentum back on our side."

A big scrum in the Senators' crease with 1:40 left in regulation led to two minor penalties for each team that didn't affect on-ice manpower. However, Ottawa forward Chris Neil was whistled for holding with 25.7 seconds left to give the Rangers a power play for much of the first two minutes of overtime.

Anderson kicked out Marc Staal's shot just as Neil's penalty expired, and a lead pass sent Neil in alone on Lundqvist, who poke-checked the rolling puck off his stick.

Prust got the Rangers even at 1 at 2:45 of the second period during a delayed-penalty call. Staal, who missed the previous two games because of an undisclosed injury, was cut down at centre ice by a sliding tackle from defenceman Chris Phillips. Staal got a pass off while on the ice to Prust, who snapped in his 12th goal.

The Rangers showed more life throughout the third period and generated chances that Anderson handled. New York killed Ryan McDonagh's holding penalty just past the midpoint of the period.

Shannon broke the scoreless deadlock with 4:39 left in the second when he converted off a circle-to-circle pass from Bobby Butler and beat Lundqvist from the right for his 10th goal this season and fourth in five games. It came just 21 seconds after Ottawa's first power play ended.

NOTES: Shannon had scored only two goals in 34 games before this recent spurt ... Senators D Sergei Gonchar missed his second game because of a concussion ... Rangers D Matt Gilroy sat out to make room for Staal. LW Sean Avery was a healthy scratch for the fourth straight game and for the fifth time in six ... The Senators return home to face the Washington Capitals on Friday night at Scotiabank Place (7:30 p.m., TSN, Team 1200).