Sjostrom, Lundqvist help Rangers silence Ruutu

November 18, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

The recipe was a similar one. Fall behind against a Northeastern foe. Get timely stops from Henrik Lundqvist. Come up with a tying third period goal to force overtime and then pull out all the stops to win another shootout in dramatic fashion exciting home supporters.

It’s true that the Rangers repeated all these characteristics which led to a thrilling comeback win over Boston over the weekend. But they also had to contend with cheapshot artist Jarkko Ruutu who throughout last night’s 2-1 shootout triumph over the last place Senators was up to his usual tricks trying to get a disciplined first place club off their game.

No matter what bush league garbage the renown pest pulled including firing a second offering at Lundqvist after fanning on his attempt in Round Two of the skill competition, ultimately the Blueshirts did what they had to do to get their third straight win improving to 14-5-2 good for 30 points proving they have staying power.

They didn’t play a poor game by any stretch but got the Sens’ best effort with the struggling club desperate to end a four-game slide with a little added incentive facing former defenseman Wade Redden. Not surprisingly, Ottawa aggressively attacked the net forcing Lundqvist to come up with tough saves in traffic. It still took a perfect play to beat the Ranger netminder who started for the 13th time in 14 games playing another strong game finishing with 27 saves to earn First Star.

With the game scoreless late in the second, Lundqvist’s former Swedish Olympic Gold teammate Daniel Alfredsson struck scoring off a broken play at 16:13 to snap a 10-game goal drought. With the puck along the left wall, the dangerous finisher used a legal pick from Dany Heatley to escape Michal Rozsival beating Fredrik Sjostrom to the slot before patiently shooting one through a screen low past Lundqvist. Heatley and Alexandre Picard tallied assists.

Without Scott Gomez who remained out with an ankle injury which looks to be more serious than first thought, the Ranger offense stagnated for a second consecutive game until the third period. They again saved their best for last with coach Tom Renney making some subtle line changes by sitting out Nikolai Zherdev and Aaron Voros for long stretches. In their place skated Nigel Dawes and Dan Fritsche who worked alongside Brandon Dubinsky with improving rookie Lauri Korpikoski shifted to the checking line with Sjostrom and Blair Betts.

The moves paid dividends with Korpikoski continuing his impressive play generating chances along with Betts and Sjostrom who all worked the puck in deep playing a straight line north/south game taking the body and winning the board battles. Some continued diligent work by the trio led to Sjostrom’s tying goal.

With the new line buzzing down low, a wraparound attempt deflected out to Marc Staal, whose shot was stopped by Alex Auld but a hustling Betts dug out the rebound passing to an open Sjostrom, who with the Ottawa goalie down went upstairs to tie it with 12:43 remaining. It was Sjostrom’s second of the season and first in 17 games. A deserving reward for a guy who never takes a shift off.

He was able to knot the contest thanks in large part to Lundqvist, who was splendid all night keeping the deficit at one with sparkling saves on Ruutu denying a two-on-one and a stone job on Antoine Vermette’s shorthanded bid getting the pad out.

The Rangers continued to need that kind of clutch goaltending just to earn a point with Lundqvist stopping an Ottawa barrage with under 10 minutes left denying Jason Spezza twice and Alfredsson right on the doorstep. He also shut the door on another Spezza opportunity when the Ottawa top pivot had a step on a Ranger for a mini-break.

The game went to OT where neither team could get much during the four-on-four with only the Rangers registering a shot which Auld repelled pushing it to another shootout. In Round One, Renney sent back out Zherdev, who did see a couple of late shifts with Voros in the third after being in the coach’s doghouse.

The fiery Russian who didn’t register a shot in 13:21 atoned making no mistake going five-hole on Auld to give his team the lead. With Lundqvist in net, that was enough to hold up with the King stopping Spezza, Ruutu and foiling Vermette’s backhand deke.

Afterwards while teammates congratulated him, club enforcer Colton Orr who got a rare power play shift along with Dubinsky and emerging team leader Paul Mara skated over in Ruutu’s direction giving him fair warning about his lack of respect firing another shot at their goalie which was a no-no. The same pest who only got two games for a blatant elbow last week from the league tried to go high on Staal during the first. Good thing the second-year defender got his head up before Voros stuck up for him.

This ain’t over. Not by a long shot. They might’ve silenced the 33 year-old Finn who always pushes the envelope with his cheapness. But you just know he’ll try something else when the same two teams faceoff four days from now for a 3 PM matinee up north.

It might just be worth watching.

Notes: Aside from Ruutu’s usual antics, both teams played very disciplined with each getting just three power plays with neither able to cash in. … In his first game versus his former club, Redden played a steady game logging 22:43 with one shot on goal, two takeaways while taking the body with four of the Rangers’ 53 hits. In an oddity which might explain why Zherdev sat, he was the only player who didn’t register a hit with even Rozsival credited with five. … One of the reasons Auld was so tough to beat was due to his teammates sacrificing their bodies by blocking 19 Ranger shots with Chris Phillips (4) and Anton Volchenkov (3) paving the way. By comparison, the home club got in the path of only five with Rozsival blocking a pair. … Blueshirts edged the Sens in faceoffs 30-28 with a big game from Chris Drury, who went 13-of-19. … Making his 11th start in 12, Auld had 26 saves on the losing end.

THREE STARS:

3rd Star-Blair Betts, NYR (assist, SOG, 2 hits, 2 takeaways, 8-8 draws, plus-one in 16:28)

2nd Star-Fredrik Sjostrom, NYR (tying goal at 7:17 3rd, 4 SOG, 2 hits, 1 blocked shot in 15:14)

1st Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (27 saves, league leading 12th victory)

Battle Of Elite Goalies Set For Wednesday: If Lundqvist is the top goalie in the East with Martin Brodeur out, then Roberto Luongo just might be the best out West. The Canuck No.1 has bounced back so far leading the league with five shutouts. It certainly wasn’t his fault his team lost in a shootout 2-1 to the Islanders with Luongo making 34 saves while Joey MacDonald stood tall with 31 denying all three Canuck shooters to give the Isles a third consecutive win.

As of right now, Lundqvist ranks first in wins (12), third in GAA (1.92) and tied for fourth in save percentage (.931) while Luongo is tied for second in wins (10), tied for seventh in GAA (2.14) and eighth in save percentage (.928).

Would it shock anyone if it amounted to a highscoring game?