December 6, 2011, Toronto Maple Leafs-New York Rangers game story for Metro Newspaper in NYC
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SCOTT LEVY/NHLI/GETTY IMAGES
Cody Franson, center, celebrates his score in the first period.
DENIS GORMAN
The Rangers played a strong 33 minutes.
Too bad a regulation National Hockey League game is 60 minutes.
The Rangers earned every bit of their 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden Monday night.
“We had a tough start,” Dan Girardi said. Matched against Toronto’s top line of Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and Joffrey Lupul, Girardi was minus-one in 25:39 with four hits and two blocked shots.
“When we’re deviating from the game plan and doing stuff outside of what we usually do, that’s when we get in trouble.”
They spotted Toronto a 3-0 lead in the first 26:49.
Cody Franson’s top of the slot wrister 6:01 into the first opened the scoring. After the goal, the Leafs began to dominate the game with their speed and skill.
“I don’t think we had our speed up and I don’t think we were closing them out,” said Ryan Callahan. “Against a team like that, that can transition and has that much speed and skill, it’s going to hurt.”
Tim Connolly’s crease-crashing goal 5:12 into the second doubled the Leafs’ lead. It was a play right out the Rangers’ playbook. Brad Richards lost a defensive zone faceoff to Connolly, who drove to the net a step ahead of Ruslan Fedotenko, and shoveled a Matt Frattin pass under a mostly ordinary Henrik Lundqvist (26 saves).
Joffrey Lupul increased Toronto’s advantage to 3-0 1:37 after Connolly’s goal. Lupul took the puck away from Dan Girardi in the corner and began a passing sequence that concluded with the Toronto right winger’s 13th goal of the season.
Artem Anisimov’s goal with 7:00 left in second cut the deficit to 3-1. Anisimov, who was the best Rangers player on the ice, replaced Sean Avery on a line change and ripped a shot from top of the slot. Seconds later, he drew a hook on Toronto center David Steckel. During the ensuing power play, linemate Stepan forced Tyler Bozak into a hook.
Marian Gaborik took advantage of the 5-on-3 power play with a goal-mouth slam dunk with 5:28 left in the second that sliced Toronto’s lead to 3-2.
However, the Rangers were unable to tie the game as Jonas Gustavsson (30 saves) was strong in nets against them for the second game in a row. Gustavsson and the notoriously awful Garden ice conspired to rob Sean Avery on a semi-breakaway in the second period. Early in the third, he made consecutive saves on Fedotenko and Ryan Callahan.
“In the second half [of the game], when they built some momentum off of that 5-on-3 [power play], we needed him to make a lot of big saves,” Ron Wilson said. “He stood big in the situations where the puck was in tight around him.”
Steckel’s empty netter with four seconds remaining sealed the scoring.
The Rangers entered the game having won five in a row and 11 of their last 13. They were also one win away from 2,500 in the franchise’s 86 years of existence.
Follow NHL beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1042592--rangers-drop-one-to-leafs
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 12:27 AM
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