Gomez’ return helps Rangers get on track

November 25, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Scott Gomez returned and not a moment too soon helping the Rangers get back on track as they ended a two-game skid by posting a 4-1 home win over the Coyotes, who fell to 0-4-2 in their last six.

Reunited with Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan following a five-game hiatus due to a stress fracture in his foot, Gomez didn’t miss a beat logging nearly 23 minutes skating well creating chances and also getting five shots on net including the icing on the cake into an open net with 28 seconds left setup by his linemates.

“It’s exciting to be back,” the pleased center said.

“I probably provided a little comedy on the bench. All you want to do is be a part of it, and you hate it when you’re not in the lineup.”

Gomez also made a huge difference in the faceoff circle where he destroyed the Coyotes going 19 for 23 which boded well against a puck possession up tempo opponent who didn’t clog up the neutral zone making it an entertaining game to watch. Well, at least that’s what I gathered from catching the final two periods.

Even better was the play of the line of Markus Naslund, Brandon Dubinsky and Nikolai Zherdev with the newly formed trio combining for a goal and five assists on the night. Both Dubinsky and Zherdev had their best games in quite a while with the second-year Alaskan finishing with a Gordie Howe hat trick and the former Blue Jacket matching a career high with three assists.

One thing which didn’t happen was the team getting off quickly falling behind early when Russian Enver Lisin tallied 4:08 in from ex-Panther Olli Jokinen and veteran Ken Klee. The sluggish beginnings have been an issue and if not for some big stops from money man Henrik Lundqvist (35 saves incl. 14 in first), they could’ve fallen behind by more.

It enabled the Rangers to find their game and for the first time in eight games, they scored a first period goal when checking center Blair Betts finished off a passing play for his third tying it at 13:33. After booing target Michal Rozsival got the puck to an on moving Zherdev, the Russian forward came in two-on-one finding a cutting Betts, who deked Ilya Bryzgalov to the forehand.

Early in the second, another great rush from Zherdev helped Dubinsky snap a 13-game drought when he snuck a wraparound past Bryzgalov with a little help from Ed Jovanovski, who seemed to get a piece of it. Dubinsky’s fifth came just 1:15 in and gave the Blueshirts a lead to work with.

It was in the previous period that Dubinsky hit the crossbar and dropped the gloves with tough Phoenix enforcer Daniel Carcillo. Maybe it was a sign of things to come for the slumping player whose offense had run dry along with his team.

“The effort was good, the intentions were good, the outcome was great,” coach Tom Renney observed. “When you are trying to turn things around and get yourself back on track, you can’t do it all in one shift. We wanted to, but that doesn’t work.”

A huge improvement was his team’s discipline with only one player nabbed for a minor penalty during a quiet game where there were just three combined power plays. Even better was that it was the Rangers who capitalized on one of two chances when defenseman Dan Girardi used a Dubinsky screen finding room to slap home his third from the right point to make it 3-1 with 12:23 remaining in the contest.

Receiving another good pass from Zherdev with the ‘Yotes hemmed in, the offensive blueline leader ripped one home past Bryzgalov who never saw it thanks to Dubinsky’s work in front which saw him jump out of the way at the last second.

With New York far more assertive in their defensive assignments thanks to redone D pairings using a stronger Marc Staal with Rozsival while shifting Paul Mara with Dmitri Kalinin, not only did they protect the lead but continued attacking with a vigorous forecheck. Something that had been missing from their game recently.

Zherdev, Dubinsky and Naslund continued to buzz during shifts with only some superb stops from Bryzgalov including getting a stick on a Dubinsky labeler prevented them from having a bigger night.

The scorers skated and forced the Phoenix netminder to make some tough saves with him finished with 32. The checkers checked led by Betts, who again was stellar nearly scoring shorthanded with Bryzgalov shutting down his backhand stuff try.

Rookie Lauri Korpkoski’s unit which didn’t see as much time nearly had one when the center setup Aaron Voros, who didn’t get all of a one-timer with Bryzgalov flashing a pad on it.

A solid performance from a team which needed it with Gomez getting the reward for a good first night back.

THREE STARS:

3rd Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (35 saves, 13th win of season)

2nd Star-Nikolai Zherdev, NYR (three assists, two takeaways, plus-two in 18:11)

1st Star-Brandon Dubinsky, NYR (Gordie Howe hat trick-goal, assist, fight in 17:02)

Notes: After going scoreless in three, Zherdev is 0-4-4 +3 in the last two games. His primary on Dubinsky’s goal was a career milestone making it his 200th NHL point. … With his third goal, Betts already surpassed last season’s output where he scored just twice in 75 games. … Rangers were more physical outhitting the Coyotes 32-22 with much of the grunt work done by Ryan Callahan, who paced them with seven. … The club blocked 16 shots led by Redden and Mara, who each had three apiece. … Nigel Dawes was a healthy scratch with Petr Prucha and Patrick Rissmiller remaining out. … For Phoenix, rookie Kyle Turris saw 16 shifts (11:09) registering two shots while going 5-3 on draws. Viktor Tikhonov, the grandson of the legendary Russian coach also got over 11 minutes finishing minus-one. … Rangers (15-7-2, 32 Pts) head to Florida for Thanksgiving with stops in Tampa on Turkey Eve and Florida for a special afternoon tilt Friday.

O’Byrne Gaffe Aids Isles over Habs: They still trailed by a goal up in Montreal, a place they hadn’t fared well dropping 11 of the past 14 north of the border. Maybe it was fate that a little crazy luck would come the Islanders’ way thanks to Montreal defenseman Ryan O’Byrne, who accidentally scored in his own net tying the game up with 4:47 left.

At the time, the Isles hadn’t gotten much going in the third. But it didn’t matter because during a delayed call where veteran Doug Weight pressured O’Byrne, he passed the puck back thinking Carey Price was still there. Instead, he hopelessly watched as it went into his own net allowing the Islanders to tie it with team captain Bill Guerin getting credit for his eighth.

Not surprisingly, the poor 24 year-old from British Columbia never got another shift with a sellout crowd of better than 21,000 serenading him for his awful mistake. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes the next couple of days. Especially in Canada.

Here was O’Byrne’s reaction:

“I feel bad. I apologized to everyone in the room. The fans are eager for victories and they had a right to react the way they did.”

It allowed the Islanders to earn a point forcing overtime. They killed the end of a Jon Sim delay of game minor and survived a close call in the waning seconds with Alex Kovalev’s backhand just missing wide with Joey MacDonald out of position.

But in the shootout, a pair of MacDonald denials on Andrei Kostitsyn and Alex Tanguay combined with first goalscorer Richard Park (glove) and Guerin (five-hole) made the Isles winners allowing them to steal two points for their fifth win in six.

Still, the talk will continue to center on O’Byrne, who committed the gaffe of gaffes costing his team a possible win. The Islanders were only too glad to take advantage earning an unlikely two points.

Amazingly, the video courtesy of MSG is already up on YouTube. It sure doesn’t take long. See the historic error for yourself:

Well, maybe O’Byrne’s gaffe will end similarly to Steve Smith’s which came in bigger circumstances costing the Oilers a possible repeat and shot at five consecutive Cups. I think this is a night he’d just like to forget ever happened.

Best of luck kid.