Rangers win third period shootout over Islanders, Snap skid

December 29, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

It wasn’t pretty but the Rangers managed to outlast the Islanders 5-4 in a wild game at The Garden scoring four times in the third to end their three-game winless streak.

Petr Prucha scored in his return during a seesaw period which saw the bitter rivals combine for six of the nine total goals with the Isles refusing to go away easily.

Trailing 2-1 on a late second period redirect off Kyle Okposo’s stick, the Rangers played an attacking game scoring twice 79 seconds apart with Prucha getting his second to tie it 49 seconds in and resurgent defenseman Michal Rozsival striking for his fourth in five games giving the home club their first lead.

But before you could blink, Blake Comeau got to some loose change depositing a juicy Mark Streit rebound past Henrik Lundqvist 27 seconds later knotting it. They were more aggressive but the defensive lapses made it tougher to win even if they controlled a vast majority outshooting the Isles 37-24.

Good thing they kept attacking because it paid dividends with leading goalscorer Markus Naslund tallying his 14th off a Scott Gomez faceoff win and Nigel Dawes continuing to heat up getting his sixth 7:59 later to provide enough of a margin for the Rangers to hold on.

Mike Comrie made things interesting by putting in his own rebound to cut it to one at 19:41 with Joey MacDonald pulled. However, there wasn’t enough time for the visitors from Long Island to rally like they had in Buffalo from two down to steal a point.

Good thing too for the Rangers cause they desperately needed this win to get the bitter taste of the last two home losses out.

It helped that they finally scored some goals giving their fans something to cheer about instead of just booing Dmitri Kalinin for his latest turnover which led to the first Isles’ tally with Mike Sillinger cashing in at 15:04 from Trent Hunter in the opening stanza.

Up till that point, it had been a better period which saw the Rangers outshoot the Islanders 13-6 generating some chances on a sharp MacDonald, who was equal toe the task.

When you’re not scoring, it’s easy for a soft defenseman like Kalinin to stick out because one bad turnover and the puck’s in your net. So, it was easy to be frustrated early on as my rant indicated with the coach sending out the ex-Sabre for his next shift.

In the second, the Rangers continued to come on finally drawing even on a delayed call when after a minute of controlling the puck with Lundqvist off for an extra man, a patient Nikolai Zherdev fed across for an open Gomez, who tapped in his seventh tying it at 8:29.

They continued to win forecheck hard winning battles and forcing MacDonald into some tough saves like the quick right leg kickout of a pointblank Marc Staal opportunity on the power play. He was back in the Islander net due to Rick DiPietro’s latest setback this time sidelined with a groin injury after making just one start in a home win over the Maple Leafs last Friday. Will the franchise goalie ever remain healthy?

MacDonald’s solid goaltending in which he stopped 24 of 25 shots through 40 minutes allowed his team a chance to steal the game. When Okposo deflected home his third in five career games versus the Rangers at 19:48, the Islanders were in a winning position despite being outplayed.

I halfwondered if the Rangers would let a repeat of Nov.4 happen in which the Isles’ backup starred making 35 saves in a 2-1 win. Instead, the Blueshirts answered quickly getting the kind of scoring that’s been lacking all season.

Does it mean everything’s fixed? Hardly. The D coverage was still an issue as well as team discipline with Paul Mara taking two unnecessary minor penalties. The Ranger No.2 ranked PK bailed him out but neither infraction (goalie interference, hooking) were good penalties.

At least those were the only two Islander power plays. For some reason, as Billy Jaffe alluded to on Versus, the Rangers play grittier when they’re down a man. How does one explain it?

As for the Ranger PP, they took the collar in five chances. A couple were okay but there are still some things which need to be worked on.

At the very least, they finished a brutal month with a victory and will look to build upon it when they visit Washington Saturday, Jan.3 in 2009.

We’ll see what they come up with against Alex Ovechkin and Co. following that collapse last week. The Caps have won the first two meetings. Some payback would be nice.

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Mike Comrie, NYI (goal, assist, scrap, 3 SOG, plus-one in 16:12)

2nd Star-Scott Gomez, NYR (goal, assist, game high 7 SOG in 19:11)

1st Star-Petr Prucha, NYR (goal, 5 SOG, 3 hits, plus-one in 12:11)

Notes: Before the Ranger explosion, Ryan Callahan caught Hunter with a clean check along the glass knocking him out for a couple of minutes due to the door opening. Dangerous stuff. Hunter was attended to by trainers before getting up and skating off on his own power to cheers. Hopefully, he’ll be alright. … Reunited with Zherdev and Prucha, Brandon Dubinsky responded with a solid game assisting on a pair of goals for his first multi-point night in 16 contests since recording a Gordie Howe hat trick in a Nov.24 home win over the Coyotes. It gives him three assists in two games and four in the last four.

… There were a pair of fights with Colton Orr bloodying Mitch Fritz and Dawes and Comrie dropping ‘em following a clean takeout of Okposo. … Lundqvist finished with 20 saves notching his 19th victory tying him for second in the league while counterpart MacDonald turned aside 32 of 37. … Rangers (23-13-3, 49 Pts) get the rest of the week off as teams behind them makeup ground with the Devils visiting St. Louis and Dallas the next two nights.