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| Tom Mihalek/Associated Press |
The
New York Rangers took on the rival Philadelphia Flyers today in what had to be
seen as a must win game given the ever tightening Eastern Conference playoff
race. You just had the feeling with how
last year ended in Philadelphia that today’s game was going to come down to a
shootout again and it did, but with a different result this time. Coming off two subpar efforts in their last
two the team responded with an excellent effort this afternoon and was rewarded
for it with the 3-2 shootout win which moved them into seventh place in the East
and gave them a three point cushion on ninth place Carolina. The shootout saw Henrik Lundqvist erase the
memories of last season’s finale in Philadelphia stoning Nikolai Zherdev and Claude
Giroux while Erik Christensen and Wojtek Wolski both beat Bobrovsky with
forehand shots.
This
win is the type of character performance that has come to be expected this season
as they were able to put a bad game/games behind them, bounce back and put in
an effort to get them the critical points they need. This is a huge momentum type win heading down
the final three games of the season and reduced their magic number to 6 with
Carolina and Buffalo playing in an hour.
New York will certainly have to bring this level of effort and intensity
out there tomorrow night and the rest of the season if they look to win. When they play like this they are a legit
threat to any and all teams in this league.
Overall
the Rangers played a solid road first period, but it would be the Flyers got on
the board first on a goal from James Van Riemsdyk when he converted the rebound
Sean O’Donnell shot from the point at 12:25.
On the play Steve Eminger utterly failed to clear out JVR from in front
of the net which allowed him to easily pick up the rebound and slide it under
Henrik.
Late
in the first the Rangers power play would get a chance to atone for the debacle
that was their power play on Thursday when they went 0-7 against the
Islanders. The first penalty was to Matt
Carle for hooking and then 1:06 later Brayden Coburn would go off for two
minutes when he high sticked Marc Stall.
The Rangers looked like they were going to head into the first
intermission down 1-0, but then Bryan McCabe fired a tremendous drive from the
point that beat Bobrovsky with .7 seconds left in the period. That drive is the reason that McCabe was
brought in here to begin with and gives the Rangers momentum heading into the
second.
The
second period saw the Rangers play excellent hockey as they were able to play
their game and dictate the tempo by exercising puck possession and establishing
the forecheck. At 13:30 of the period the hard work would be rewarded as Ruslan
Fedotenko took a feed from Vinny Prospal and roofed it from in front to give
the Rangers the 2-1 lead. The goal was
Fedotenko’s first since January 19 and much of the credit has to be given to
Marc Staal and his effort on the play.
New
York headed into the third with the 2-1 lead looking to hold onto their perfect
27-0-0 record when leading after two and while they didn’t play a great third
period they were able to hold on for the OT.
The Flyers got the tying goal during a 4-on-4 from Nikolai Zherdev who
was left all alone in front. Earlier in
the play Ryan McDonagh blocked a shot off his leg and limped to the bench. This created some confusion on the coverage
and while a replacement defender was coming on, it was Brian Boyle who failed
in the coverage on Zherdev that led to the goal.
- At this time of the year special teams is critical to wins and losses and that was certainly the case today. The Rangers got the huge goal from McCabe late in the first and their penalty kill did a great job of neutralizing the Flyers on all four of their attempts.
- Marian Gaborik did not score today but he was very noticeable on the ice in all zones, but especially in his defensive work early in the game
- You cannot say enough about how the minutes and effort from Staal and Girardi today. Staal put in 34:01 of ice today while playing the last two periods with a broken nose. Girardi had 32:36 and blocked seven shots in the game.
