Rangers pound Avalanche for much needed win

February 28, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Six goals were actually scored. Not only did the Rangers find the back of the net with unfamiliar regularity but they pounded the Avalanche literally beating them up on the ice as well as the scoreboard which read 6-1 when all was said and done.

This was a necessity for new coach John Tortorella’s club who now get the next four days off before another mandatory two points are required when they visit the Islanders Thursday. By that time, the question is will there be any new faces with the March 4 trade deadline this Wednesday at 3 PM.

For now, the six-goal explosion was exactly what the doctor ordered with the Rangers scoring twice in the first 1:28 40 seconds apart thanks to Brandon Dubinsky setting up Ryan Callahan for his 14th and Nikolai Zherdev banking in his 15th off some nice work from rookie Lauri Korpikoski down low setting the tone.

Finally, Henrik Lundqvist must’ve felt like a King getting the royal treatment. He still came up with one huge save denying an Av pointblank to keeping it a two-goal game before a hustling Petr Prucha stuffed in his fourth past a dazed and confused Peter Budaj who was chased from the net.

Unfortunately for 15th Colorado, Andrew Raycroft wasn’t much better allowing three more including a Scott Gomez redirect of a Marc Staal one-time blast making it a four-goal Blueshirt dominated period.

Gomez later setup captain Chris Drury for a slam dunk converting a five-on-three  making it 5-0 4:56 into the second. It finally ended Drury’s career worst 17-game long goal drought.

By the time Ryan Smyth tallied to break the shutout, it was over thanks to the kind of effort that was rewarded unlike the other night in which they severely outplayed and outchanced an opportunistic Florida team.

Markus Naslund would add his team-leading 20th for the final margin with 5:11 remaining.With the game decided, the fireworks were just beginning as a cheap rough from Colorado’s Cody McCormick on notably clean Ranger Freddy Sjostrom leading to Colton Orr getting involved with Ian Laperriere.

Eventually, it resulted in Orr fighting Chris Stewart and unsung hero Paul Mara beating up Darcy Tucker putting  the exclamation on the Rangers’ most important win of the season.

It allowed them to move past Florida into sixth in the conference with 72 points. They also got some help from the Isles who shutout the Sabres while Ilya Kovalchuk stayed hot scoring twice in Atlanta’s comeback 5-3 victory over Carolina.

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Paul Mara, NYR (1 assist, fight, 3 SOG, +1 in 18:29)

2nd Star-Lauri Korpikoski, NYR (2 assists, +2 in 11:38)

1st Star-Scott Gomez, NYR (goal, 2 assists, +2 in 18:59)

Notes: Drury and Zherdev each finished with a goal and assist combiningto go plus-five. … Only the Ranger fourth line of Orr, Sjostrom and Blair Betts finished with minuses. … Rangers outhit the Avalanche 31-29 with Brandon Dubinsky and Orr pacing them with four apiece while Smyth and Adam Foote both had four.