Dawes’ late tally gets Rangers on right California foot

December 17, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

If tonight was the first test, then Nigel Dawes and the Rangers passed with flying colors defeating the Ducks 3-1 at Honda Center thanks to the left wing’s unassisted goal late in regulation getting the club off on the right foot during this California swing.

Faced with the prospect of getting nothing despite one of their best overall games of the season, the Rangers took advantage of an Anaheim miscue due to a great individual effort from the second-year left wing who along with other goalscorer Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan played the kind of aggressive game the club had been lacking.

It was a period prior that Drury snapped an 11-game goal drought with his own solid effort cashing in on a Duck turnover before snapping his ninth by Jonas Hiller unassisted at 2:26 to give his team the lead. But a rare Henrik Lundqvist blunder late in the second where he misplayed a Ryan Carter shot allowed Anaheim to tie it when Chris Kunitz followed up Bret Hedican’s rebound for his eighth at 18:30.

Just like that, they were knotted after 40 minutes despite a 13-5 shots edge (20-12 thru 2) along with the better chances. Hiller made some big stops coming across to rob rookie Lauri Korpikoski of a sure goal during a well executed three-on-one in which Nikolai Zherdev passed across only to see the Anaheim netminder slide across stacking the pads.

The third was more even with the former Cup champions getting better forecheck pressure but the Rangers backchecked well and Lundqvist stopped all eight shots on what was a relatively light night in which he turned aside 19 of 20.

Most notably, the Blueshirts didn’t deviate from their game continuing to get pucks in and pressure. The strategy paid dividends when during a line change, Callahan forced Anaheim defenseman Kent Huskins to move the puck earlier turning it over to Dawes, who then made a brilliant play pushing the puck outside on Chris Pronger before cutting inside and then sliding it through Hiller’s five-hole for the second unassisted tally of the night.

“I think the way it happened, he was kind of flat-footed. I was getting ready to shoot, but I saw he was stepping up so I was able to just chip it by him and then go and get it,” Dawes noted after tallying only his fourth goal of the season but second in five contests reaffirming why he’s in the lineup.

“The ice was not the best—the puck was bouncing all game,” he added of Huskins’ costly miscue. “It looked like it kind of rolled up on him (Huskins). I was able to step in and intercept the pass.”

During a postgame interview with MSG’s John Giannone, he talked about a few things he wasn’t doing that he did during his rookie campaign which saw him earn a spot as a regular netting 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points along with a plus-11 rating.

If the still young 23 year-old Manitoban can regain Tom Renney’s trust while being reunited with North American linemates Drury and Callahan, that could go a long way to helping give the Rangers offense a boost whether or not Mats Sundin is on board. During last season’s strong finish, the trio meshed well together and were strong in a first round triumph over the Devils.

A loss of discipline hurt the Ducks’ chances of a late comeback when Kunitz’ was assessed a high sticking double minor for cutting Dan Girardi at 18:09 and Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf was sent to the sin bin for a phantom slash with under 60 seconds left.

Still, Anaheim attacked as well as expected knowing the Rangers’ propensity for allowing shorthanded goals. They even got Hiller to the bench making it a four-on-five forcing Lundqvist to come up with one more save on a low Pronger shot before a maze of traffic with a Ranger finally clearing it out of trouble.

With Zherdev looking at an open net, Pronger wrestled him down from behind at the Anaheim blueline signifying an automatic goal for the Russian putting the exclamation point on an impressive win at 19:59.

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Jonas Hiller, Ana (27 saves)

2nd Star-Chris Drury, NYR (unassisted goal, 3 SOG, +1 in 19:10)

1st Star-Nigel Dawes, NYR (GWG at 16:44 3rd, 4 SOG, +1 in 13:50)

Notes: Hiller made the start with Anaheim giving the night off to starter Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who lost his Dad Claude Monday. BONY sends its best wishes to him and his family.

… Rangers No.1 ranked PK did the job successfully killing all three Anaheim power plays and are now 29 for their last 30 including a big kill with Brandon Dubinsky off for a dubious hold with under 12 minutes left in the third. … Fourth line pivot Blair Betts had another effective game centering Korpikoski and Colton Orr finishing plus-two due to line changes. Orr and Anaheim heavyweight George Parros exchanged words between benches following a slash by the Ranger enforcer on a Duck but neither dropped the gloves with instead Aaron Voros battling Steve Montador to a draw early in the third.

…Interestingly enough, the Rangers improved to 2-0-1 versus the Ducks in their last three meetings. … They don’t get any time off visiting the well rested Kings, who own a 4-0-1 mark against them in the last five. We’ll see how they fare later tonight with faceoff set for 10:37 EST.