Avery, Rangers show intelligence in big win over rival

March 31, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

The stage was set again for Sean Avery as he renewed acquaintances with chief rival Martin Brodeur. Amidst all the media hype was how important the outcome of the game was for Avery’s team the Rangers, who are in a tight battle with Montreal and Florida for one of the final two spots.

There’s also this. After playing one of their finest games of the season posting a 3-0 shutout against Brodeur and the suddenly reeling Devils, the Blueshirts can still make life easier for themselves by climbing up a topsy turvy East where only the top three seeds have guaranteed themselves a second season. They moved within one of idle Pittsburgh and two behind sizzling Thursday opponent Carolina. That’s how close things remain with under two weeks remaining.

The job is far from finished for John Tortorella’s club who played intelligently in outclassing their close Hudson rival in what was a playoff atmosphere at The Garden. They had put the playoffs in serious jeopardy by dropping three of four suddenly entering only a point up on eighth Montreal and two clear of ninth Florida. To say it was imperative to get back on track would be an understatement. The Rangers needed this one against a battle tested opponent who would’ve loved nothing more than to damage their Spring aspirations even further.

If only the slumping Atlantic leaders had remembered to play hockey. Instead, it was the Rangers who beat the Devils to the punch firing 20 shots on a razor sharp Brodeur in a first period barrage. Oh. You knew he’d be real focused against a player and team he despises. Early on, the all-time winnigest netminder didn’t disappoint stopping Rangers in his track saving his best saves on Avery and a Chris Drury pointblank rebound attempt of a Nik Antropov backhand. So, the certain Hall of Famer did his best to give his team a chance keeping it scoreless in spite of a 20-10 shots edge in favor of the hosts.

Instead of letting that deter them, the Rangers remained focused as did Henrik Lundqvist, who could’ve read a book in the first but was called upon to make his biggest stop of the night on Bobby Holik, off a follow-up opportunity of a Brian Rolston try. At that critical juncture, the contest was still up for grabs. It was the kind of timely save one expects a player of Lundqvist’s caliber to make with so much at stake. He would stop all 38 his way for his third shutout of the season.

Not long after, Lundqvist’s teammates responded with a great shift down low that resulted in the first goal. Some hustle from often overlooked Freddy Sjostrom enabled Dan Girardi to get a low shot through on Brodeur which caromed out to rejuvenated sophomore Brandon Dubinsky, who patiently waited before firing his 11th upstairs past the outstretched Devil goalie.

The goal lifted the team’s spirit further intensifying things on the ice when former Devil teammates Holik and Scott Gomez got involved in a scrum each taken off for roughing. The tradeoff seemed to favor the road club but it was the Rangers who took the opportunity to double their lead thanks in large part to a hustle play from Antropov.

While attacking four-on-four with linemate Chris Drury, Antropov reached with his stick to keep a play alive pushing the puck to Girardi at a vacant point who then fired upstairs past Brodeur increasing to 2-0 at 6:39. Drury got the other assist also doing some solid work in front of the Devil goalie waving his stick at the puck as it whizzed by. It’s been that sort of yeoman work lately from the Ranger captain that’s turned around a disappointing season. He has 13 points in the last 14 games and 14 in 16 since Tortorella took over.

If they thought it was over, the Blueshirts were mistaking as the Devils became more aggressive with their forecheck generating opportunities on Lundqvist, who was equal to the task stopping all 19 shots in the middle stanza en route to the 20th shutout of his career.

“I haven’t had as many as last year,” he noted. “I’m happy for this one. Guys worked really hard for me. I made up my mind before the third period I wanted this one.”

If New Jersey came harder in the second, then it was also true that the Ranger D bent but didn’t break keeping most of the chances to the outside allowing Lundqvist to see them without losing their discipline. They took only two penalties- both in the third which the league’s top rated PK easily killed. The steady play of Hartford recall Corey Potter (15:53) allowed Tortorella to play a full six including veteran Paul Mara (15:26), who bounced back from an off game at Pittsburgh.

The Ranger coach was also sharper than Saturday’s oddity when he admittedly forgot to send a player into the box to serve Colton Orr’s even weirder major. Following an icing where the Devs were dictating play, he wisely used his timeout allowing the tired players to regroup. It paid off. The team finally settled down and got a big goal increasing the margin to three.

Coming through the neutral zone, Avery passed across for a streaking Gomez, who then drew defenders before kicking out for a trailing Ryan Callahan. The recently turned 24 year-old Rochester native remained hot rifling a perfect wrist shot top shelf for his 21st- his eighth goal under Tortorella. The former 2004 fourth rounder is developing into a key contributor having posted 10 points in his last 10 games. No coincidence that the more aggressive style suits the energizer’s game.

By the time the third rolled around, Brent Sutter shuffled his lines hoping to find magic by teaming his three most skilled forwards together by putting Patrik Elias with Travis Zajac and dangerous offensive leader Zach Parise, who was kept quiet with three shots in 17:19. On this night, it didn’t seem to matter as the Rangers improved to 10-2-3 including playoffs with Avery against New Jersey.

When they realized it just wasn’t their night, the road club decided to try to settle the score against Avery but failed miserably as David Clarkson might attest following a temper tantrum with the Devil antagonist getting lured into a double minor for roughing and a misconduct. He tried his best to get Avery to fight but the Ranger who dropped one glove earning two minutes himself decided against it with the Rangers in firm control.

“It’s a 3-0 game at that point, I don’t think that there’s anything to gain by doing anything,” he pointed out following an effective game that also saw him dish out four hits including a cruncher on Johnny Oduya on the next shift. “It certainly takes discipline for sure. You fight for your team and for your teammates. At that point I didn’t need to fight for either of them.”

“I don’t know if it’s irritating,” Clarkson retorted while choosing words carefully. “They won the game. He didn’t want to fight. I’m not going to say anything bad about the guy. He obviously did his job.”

If it was understandable why Clarkson tried, it surely wasn’t for Mike Rupp’s actions looking to rough up Marc Staal, foolishly tugging him down early in the period leading to a roughing minor. Oddly enough, Ranger enforcer Colton Orr was out there but apparently, one of the league’s better heavyweights who Rupp earned a decision against earlier in a Devil win at The Rock this season wasn’t what he had in mind.

The easily flustered Devil grinder later went after Avery on the game’s final shift throwing him to the ice getting another rough to end his night. Tortorella could easily have sent Orr out but wasn’t interested in that.

“We’re still fighting for our lives,” he accurately stated. “We are just trying to find a way to get points.”

As for his unlikely pupil who didn’t speak to reporters prior to the festivities, he wasn’t tipping his hand much.

“I just went into it the same I have for a lot of games, just trying to get focused and knowing what I have to do.”

Exactly the attitude his team must have the rest of the way.