March 25, 2009, Minnesota Wild-New York Rangers game story for Metro (NY) Newspaper
Rangers bounce back
Blueshirts control puck in 2-1 win over Wild
NHL.
John Tortorella saw a team that had emotionally flatlined Sunday night.
The Rangers had just finished the weekend having split two games. On Saturday night, Tortorella’s charges looked like world beaters in topping Buffalo. Twenty-four hours later against the trapping Senators, the Rangers were tired and out-of-sync.
In a playoff race, the coach could have ranted and raved about the importance of the lost two points at Monday’s optional skate. He could have drowned his team in video. He could have bag-skated his team into the ground.
Instead, the hard driving coach gave his team the day off.
The Rangers responded to their coach’s benevolence by dominating the Wild, 2-1, last night at the Garden. Do not be fooled by the final score because by any measurable statistic, the Blueshirts were clearly the better team. They outshot the Wild 30-19; had more power plays (five to two) and, by extension, more power play time (6:48 to 2:22) and won more faceoffs (35 to 19).
“We bounced back with a solid effort tonight to get two points,” said Henrik Lundqvist after a relatively easy 18-save performance. “It felt like they were just waiting for our mistakes but we didn’t make many tonight and that is why we won the game. They didn’t really try to forecheck hard or go after us. They had a few opportunities every period but I thought we played very solid tonight.”
Scott Gomez scored the game-winner with a slapshot from the slot 2:24 into the second period. Fifty-three seconds after soon-to-be-former-Wild-winger Marian Gaborik (was it a MSG audition?) tied the match with a deflection of a Marek Zidlicky shot from the point, Gomez took a feed from Sean Avery and hammered the puck past Niklas Backstrom (28 saves).
“It was a great play by Sean and I just happened to get all of it,” said Gomez.
Nik Zherdev scored the game’s first goal with 4.4 seconds left in the first. Standing alongside the goal line, the enigmatic Russian Ranger right wing waited until Backstrom went down and lifted the puck over the Minnesota goaltender.
“Nicky comes in and out [of the line with Gomez and Avery]. Sometimes he’s playing with us, sometimes he’s not. [Tortorella] tends to switch things around a bit,” Avery said. “He scored a big goal for us tonight, for sure.”
The Rangers came out mean with two first period fights. The first was between Avery and Cal Clutterbuck in the NHL’s hated light-heavyweights division, followed a few minutes later by a heavyweight bout that saw Colton Orr win a decision over Owen Nolan.
“I think at that point in the game it was something [that] needed to be done and I was just the guy that did it,” said Avery about his fight. “I was trying to get guys energized. I was trying to get myself into the game. I had a little bit of regret from the Ottawa game. I thought I should have done something similar to get the guys going. I wasn’t going to let that opportunity to go by again.”
Tortorella was pleased with his team’s nasty attitude. It’s an approach that should serve the team well come the playoffs—should his team play games in April and May.
“I know that Sean knows that he didn’t play that well the other night. I think he wanted to get back into his game, bang a little bit (and) fight. Colton Orr does his job. Those things are momentum swings and I thought we did a really good job there.”
Three things we saw last night
1) Tort reform.
Wild coach Jacques Lemaire has faith in the trap, believing that not allowing the opposition time and space in the neutral zone will lead to offensive chances for his team. John Tortorella preaches from the book of puck possession. Last night, the differing philosophies met head-on at the Garden with the Rangers’ go-go-go style forcing Minnesota to spend most of the night in their own zone. Henrik Lunqvist faced just 19 shots, including just three in the first period.
2) 1-0, again.
Nikolai Zherdev gave the Rangers their seventh-straight 1-0 lead with five seconds left in the first. He had an assist on Scott Gomez’s second-period goal to reclaim the lead, 2-1.
3) Setting the tone early.
Sean Avery and Colton Orr accounted for 12 minutes of penalties in the first period. The Blueshirts were definitely the aggressor and outshot Minnesota by 11 to win for the eighth time in their last 11.
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With last night’s 2-1 win over Minnesota, the Rangers are tied with Pittsburgh for the sixth position in the Eastern Conference (86 points each). It looks like 92 points should be enough to land a playoff berth. Following Thursday’s game in Atlanta, though, the Rangers will have their final seven games against teams jockeying for playoff position.
Rangers coach John Tortorella with the quote of the night: “I still think we have work to do there for our team to feel that they can step on that ice and feel good that they’re going to get it done, not hope to get it done. That’s going to take some time.”
http://metro.us/us/article/2009/03/25/04/5722-82/index.xml
http://www.readmetro.com/show/en/NewYork/20090325/1/14/
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 8:30 AM
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