March 9, 2009, Boston Bruins-New York Rangers game story and graphics for Metro (NY)
Rangers prove they belong
Avery sparks Rangers over first-place Bruins
NHL.
Yesterday was not about Sean Avery. Nor was it about the Garden debuts of the newly acquired Derek Morris and Nik Antropov.
It was about the Rangers finding and learning about themselves. Perhaps it was the Rangers sending a warning to the rest of the league.
The Rangers’ 4-3 nationally-televised win over the Bruins was their third in a row and have the Blueshirts sixth in the East with 76 points. The Rangers will be in Raleigh tonight for a game against the suddenly hot Hurricanes.
Nik Zherdev’s rebound tally into a half-empty net with 6:32 remaining in the third broke a 3-3 tie. The Russian winger drove to the net and snapped the Marc Staal carom — Staal started the play by carrying the puck from his end into the Boston zone and firing a shot behind the net — past Manny Fernandez for the game winner. It was Zherdev’s third game-winning goal of the season.
The story is in the route the Rangers took to get to Zherdev’s game-winner.
Leading 3-1 on goals from Antropov, Scott Gomez and Ryan Callahan, defenseman Dan Girardi took a four-minute high sticking penalty at the end of the second period.
Boston’s fourth ranked power play took full advantage. Zdeno Chara’s 4-on-4 slapshot goal 2:12 into the third cut the Rangers lead to 3-2. One minute and one second later, Michael Ryder tied the game with a wrist shot from the left face off circle.
The Rangers were stunned.
“It’s attributed to them scoring two quick goals. We kind of wet our pants a little bit there,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “We kind of had that look. They’re surges. I like to call them surges and good teams do it. That’s why Boston has [95] points have this year. They’re able to do some of those things.
“We bent. We struggled. There’s no question that we struggled but we still found a win to win a hockey game. It’s finding ways to get points.”
The Tom Renney Rangers would have perhaps sat back, content to try to get the game to overtime. The John Tortorella Rangers pressed forward.
“It is tough, especially against the best team (in the league),” said Gomez, who finished with a goal and plus-one. “I just like the poise we had after. What is done is done and let’s go, that was the attitude. We didn’t panic. We stuck with it and it was a great two points.”
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 11:07 AM
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