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| Don Smith/NHLI via Getty Images |
Coming off arguably their worst performance
of the season Wednesday in Anaheim the Rangers took the ice tonight in San Jose
looking for redemption. It took them all
the way to the shootout and six rounds later Brandon Dubinsky sent the Rangers
home with a hard fought two points when he beat Anti Niemi five-hole. If not for Wojtek Wolski coming up with a
clutch goal in the third round of the shootout the Rangers lose as Dan Boyle
had the Sharks poised for the win with his beautiful goal on the backhand
against Lundqvist, but Wolski kept it alive and Dubinsky finally cashed it in.
The shootout winner by Dubinsky
pushed the Rangers record to 8-3 in the skills competition, which while it
might hurt them in tiebreakers later has been critical to their current
standing. With the win the Rangers moved
back into seventh in the Eastern Conference with a four point “cushion” on
ninth place Carolina.
Dubinsky might have gotten the
winner, but tonight was all about Henrik Lundqvist as he stole two points for
the Blueshirts. Henrik while solid many
nights has not stolen too many of late, but tonight was certainly one of those
as he stopped 31 shots, numerous of the top notch variety and both goals that
beat him were once again deflected.
The Rangers came out sluggish in
the first period and were controlled for much of the first period, but were
able to keep it even until Ryan Clowe scored off Marc Staal and over Henrik
Lundqvist’s glove. The Sharks were on
the power play after Matt Gilroy fumbled the puck behind the net and eventually
took a hooking penalty. Off the ensuing
faceoff Marc Staal was hit with a high stick and no call was made with the play
eventually working back to Clowe would shoot it off Staal and in. It was a horrible missed call and more bad
luck for the team on deflected goals.
New York answered 4:27 later when
Erik Christensen finished off a beautiful feed from Vinny Prospal. The play was a great cycling shift, but the
end of the play was setup by a crucial pinch by Michael Sauer who kept it in
the zone and played it back down the boards to Gaborik who dropped it behind
the net for Prospal. Overall the Rangers
had to be happy to be tied after one considering they were outplayed for much
of the period.
The Rangers carried over the
late momentum from the first period into the start of the second and Michael
Sauer gave them a 2-1 lead just 1:16 into the frame. This play was a beautiful read from Sauer who
noticed that a San Jose player was without a stick and so he moved up into the
high slot and fired the shot through traffic and by Niemi.
Though New York would carry most
of the play in the period it would be San Jose that took late momentum with Ben
Eager scoring yet another deflected goal with just 3:34 left in the period to
tie the game. The Eager goal would begin
as a shot by Torrey Mitchell and then deflected off Artem Anisimov, Dan Girardi
and finally Eager before going in.
San Jose dominated the third
period, but it would be Lundqvist making some huge saves to get the team to OT.
- Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov were the best Rangers forwards for me tonight.
- Michael Sauer was phenomenal in this game in every facet
- Marc Staal had a tremendous bounce back effort and laid out Kyle Wellwood with a huge hit
- Dan Girardi also responded well with nine blocked shots.
