Rangers get back on winning track

March 19, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

It didn’t come easy and certainly wasn’t pretty but style points for winning games doesn’t matter. Especially at this critical juncture with the playoff race upon us.

The Rangers managed to pull out a 5-2 victory over the Atlantic rival Penguins on home ice last night. Oh. The start was splendid as they got the first couple on a shaky Ty Conklin.

First, Sean Avery atoned for missing an open wrap-around (hit post) by taking a Jaromir Jagr drop pass and wristing one top shelf for the first of two on the night. Tom Renney wanted his team to be more simple with the puck firing and going hard to the net.

The best example of that was rookie Ryan Callahan, whose hard work paid dividends when he got to a Chris Drury rebound and potted his eighth giving that key line their first point in six games. The goal came only 30 seconds after Avery’s opener putting a much sharper Blueshirt team (than in Florida) two goals in front.

If they were by far the superior team through 20, somebody forgot to tell them that the game is 60 minutes long! It took the Pens just the opening 3:11 of the second to knot the contest.

First, a dreadful line change led to a Jarkko Ruutu breakaway from center ice. No. This isn’t a misprint! That agitator really did get an outlet and then walked in as he does quite effectively in shootouts and calmly went to the backhand flipping it past Henrik Lundqvist upstairs. Not bad for a guy who likes to muck it up ticking off opponents.

He does skate very well and has some skill if you’ve caught a couple of Pens’ shootouts. So I wasn’t too shocked when he scored. That it was only his third of the season 98 seconds in to slice the Ranger lead in half was. Ruutu could probably score more.

The Pens suddenly were uplifted and would soon tie it thanks to another Lundqvist stickhandling blunder. Every Ranger fan knows how scary he can be when coming out of the net to play the puck. This time, his indecisiveness caused confusion in front leading directly to Jordan Staal’s 11th from one-time Ranger Pascal Dupuis and Marian Hossa 1:33 later tying it at two forcing Renney to call a timeout.

Good thing he did because who knows what would’ve happened? It worked as on the very next shift, Fredrik Sjostrom stole the puck on a bad Pen giveaway and then walked in deked Conklin before going to the forehand for his second goal as a Ranger with both coming at MSG.

The unassisted tally came only 44 seconds later and restored order for his team. Lundqvist then made up for his miscue by robbing a Pen on an identical backhand try from in close.

Despite both teams being guilty of bad turnovers, the game remained 3-2 entering the third. It was there that a recharged Ranger team took control getting both goals off hard work. First, Avery got to a rebound of a Dan Girardi routine right point shot, depositing the loose change for his 15th in just 48 games. Just imagine if the potential UFA hadn’t missed a good chunk of action.

The crowd responded by giving him some love chanting, “Re-sign Avery, Re-sign Avery.”

Why not? Where would this team be without the former King? He’s just been playing hockey lately and not mixing it up as much. Word of advice for you Sean. Please continue doing what you have been and don’t pull any shenanigans tonight at The Rock against your favorite opponent Marty Brodeur and the Devils. Let’s just try to stay with a simple formula which has our team five-for-five entering another big game.

I’d much rather have Avery infuriate the Devs with his work in front by potting a big goal and leaving Brodeur wondering why he ran his mouth in yesterday’s Post. I liked Lundqvist’s reply after the game tonight saying, “We know we can beat them.”

We’ll see if that holds true later tonight in what should be a heated rivalry game.

Another slumping Ranger resurfaced as Marty Straka got on the board by deflecting home a Drury shot for his 13th with 8:31 left to conclude the scoring.

He played much better as did linemates Drury and Callahan, who was finishing every check.

This was a good win and came at an appropriate time with the rival Flyers posting a 3-2 home win over Atlanta. So the Rangers are now in sixth by their lonesome at 85 points with nine games left all versus the division. One which now has them an Atlantic best 16-6-1 entering tonight.

Notes: D Marek Malik returned from an upper body injury and didn’t show any rust logging over 18 minutes while finishing plus-three. He really does boost the blueline. Especially when you can shift rookie Marc Staal to third pair with the adventurous Christian Backman, who at least has looked a little more comfortable lately. … Avery’s 15 goals matched a career high with one team back in 2005-06 when he got 15 with the Kings. He’s three away from last season’s combined 18 goal total (LA-10, NYR-8). … Devils expect to have D Colin White back from injury while F Patrik Elias might be forced to sit this one out. 

In other East action last night, the Caps defeated the Preds 4-2 on the strength of Alexander Ovechkin’s league-leading 58th plus two helpers putting the Russian over the century mark for the second time in three seasons. He leads the league with 102 points, five better than Evgeni Malkin who was kept off the scoresheet last night. … The Habs gained a point in a home 4-3 shootout defeat tying the Devs atop the conference with 90 points. However, NJ has two more games left and two extra wins. So they still rank No.1.