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| Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images |
A night after the Rangers got the bounce on the tying
goal in Washington, the bounce would go against them midway through the third
period against the Panthers. The Rangers
were clearly the better team for the bulk of the game, but they did not catch
many breaks tonight and instead of having another third period comeback win in
them they came up one goal short. It is
a tough way to go into the time off, but they will take where they currently
rest in the standings and enjoy this next week to get healthier.
The Rangers came out strong early in the first
period. The team did a great job in
pinning the Panthers deep in their own zone and creating chances. The would be rewarded with an early power play
that led to a chance for Sean Avery, but a good defensive play by Chris Higgins
would spoil it before it got on goal.
The Panthers would get on the board first despite the
Rangers dominating the first period when Higgins would feed Olesz who’s shot
would deflect off Anisimov and over Lundqvist’s glove. The period would end with that being the only
goal despite the Rangers outshooting the Panthers 12-4.
Early in the second period, a flurry of goals would
happen starting with Derek Stepan tying the game 1. On the play Mats Zuccarello would make an
excellent play to push the puck up the wall to a streaking Wojtek Wolski who
drove the net hard and had his rebound put home by Stepan.
To answer the Rangers tying goal the Panthers would
get two of their own. The first came just
46 seconds after Stepan tied the game, when Keaton Ellerby, after barely
keeping the puck in, would fire the puck on goal and it would get through
Lundqvist. It appeared the Rangers all
stopped on the play assuming it was offside.
The second strike would come only 1:08 after Ellerby’s
tally, as Santorelli crashes the crease and knocks it over a downed Lundqvist. Brian Boyle had Santorelli behind the net on
the initial play but he left him to go play the slot and no one picked him up
so he had two whacks at rebound chances.
It would take another third period rally if the
Rangers were going to salvage points out of this one and for half the period it
certainly seemed they were on their way to doing just that. In just a shade over three minutes the
Rangers had erased the two goal deficit and were back to even. Brandon Prust would deflect Michael Sauer’s
shot home to cut the deficit to one.
The Rangers would tie it 1:51 later when Brian Boyle
would stuff home the rebound of a Marian Gaborik backhand attempt on the power
play. With the goal, Boyle now leads the
Rangers with 18 goals on the season.
In the end it was not meant to be tonight as Mike
Weaver would score a fluke goal that deflected off Artem Anisimov’s back,
popped up in the air and landed behind Lundqvist, trickling into the net.
Following the game the Rangers
announced that Michael Del Zotto, Evgeny Grachev, Chad Kolarik, Brodie Dupont
and Kris Newbury were being sent back to the Connecticut Whale (AHL). Presumably a couple of them will come back
next week, but I would not expect them all to return with the expectation of
returns for Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi.
The team also announced that
both Ryan Callahan and Vinny Prospal have been activated from injured reserve.
- Lundqvist certainly was not at his best tonight, but the Bronx cheer he got during the second period was an absolute joke and they should all be ashamed of themselves. Yes, buying a ticket gives you the right to act like an idiot, but having a ticket, even season tickets does not make you a fan of this team.
- Mats Zuccarello was phenomenal tonight with his three assists and I repeat my call that the NHL should select him to replace Jordan Eberle in the SuperSkills competition during All-Star weekend.
- Michael Del Zotto was good tonight, especially the third period.
