The last time the Rangers played in Madison Square Garden for an NHL regular season game, was back on March 31st, 2004. That night the home team lost to the Buffalo Sabres 3-4, in what was perhaps a premonition of things to come. New York was looking to build on the momentum of an improbable opening night 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the much favored Philadelphia Flyers. Standing in their way were the slick skating Montreal Canadiens, also coming off an impressive road win, a 2-1 last minute win against their division rivals the Boston Bruins.
Things started well for the Rangers, who capitalized perhaps on the opening night festivities and overwhelmingly positive vibe of the building to score in just the second minute of the game. Marcel Hossa’s second goal in as many games, came from a tic-tac-toe passing maneuver, that saw the young Slovak winger score off of a nice feed from Martin Straka off of the rush. The momentum was firmly in their home team’s corner when the Canadiens took two consecutive penalties sending the Rangers power play (2/4 against the Flyers) to work. Unlike Wednesday’s game however, Jaromir Jagr and the first power play unit found little room to work on the man advantage, and both opportunities went by the way-side without a single shot registered.
At the other end of the ice the Canadiens were having their own problems, unable to register a shot on goal in the first eight minutes of the game. A Rangers penalty to Blair Betts for hooking would quickly change things however. With little success in the first half of the penalty, Montreal finally broke into the zone allowing Pierre Dagenais to send a cross ice pass to the top of the crease for the Michael Ryder to tap in the tying goal. The move caught the Rangers defense out of position and Jed Ortmeyer failed to cover his mark, but was instead caught looking at the puck carrier.
Two more consecutive penalties for the home team, limited the ability for the Rangers to generate offense and allowed the momentum to switch to the Canadiens. The visitors connected for the second goal when Tom Poti tried to use his glove to direct a Montreal dump-in towards his defensive partner Jason Strudwick, allowing Plekanec to jump on the loose puck and feed Long Island native Chris Higgins at the top of the crease.
Less than two minutes later and the Rangers tied the game after the top line had put significant pressure on Montreal in their own zone. Ultimately Michael Nylander fed the pass from behind the net to a wide open Martin Rucinsky in the slot, for his first goal of the season. The goal allowed the Rangers to go into the second period with a 2-2 tie.
The status quo lasted until the seventh minute of the second period with the Rangers top line once again putting pressure on the Canadiens in their own zone, before former Ranger Alexei Kovalev picked up a loose puck and fed a wide open Alexander Perezhogin standing behind the Rangers defense at the New York blueline. Kevin Weekes had little chance as the Russian winger beat him clean for his first NHL goal.
More penalties late in the third, including over a minute of 5 on 3 advantage for the Canadiens helped keep the Rangers offense in check as they finished the second period being outshot by the Canadiens 19-10 and trailing 3-2 going into the third for the second straight night. The penalty troubles continued in the third, with first Hollweg and then later both Lundmark and Poti spending time in the box. The infractions were particularly frustrating for the Rangers, but Poti in particular was guilty of undisciplined play when he knocked the stick out of the hands of his opponent behind the play with Lundmark already in the box.
Strong penalty killing once again kept the Rangers in the game and when Mathieu Dandenault took a cross checking penalty in his own zone late in the third, the Blueshirts were presented with an opportunity to tie the game once again. Once again the Canadiens penalty killers got the job done against the top power play unit for the Rangers, keeping the puck to the outside and preventing the clean shots, so with nothing to lose Tom Renney through out Moore, Rucchin and Hossa with time winding down in the man advantage.
As luck would have it, the move paid off for the Rangers who tied the game when a Fedor Tyutin slapshot from out near the top of the slot deflected off of Dominic Moore’s skate and past Jose Theodore. The goal marked Moore’s first NHL goal, and his first points this season. Sparked by the goal, the Rangers continued the offensive pressure in the final couple of minutes before settling for an overtime stint.
Again in overtime it was the Rangers who looked the better of the two squads, moving and skating the puck well. And then in the second minute of play in the second period, Michael Ryder let a fairly innocuous looking wide angle shot go that caught Kevin Weekes napping, allowing the Canadiens to extend their winning streak to two games.
Overall the Rangers once again were hurt by the penalties. The Canadiens finished 1 for 11 on the power play, but kept the Rangers at a man disadvantage for a total of 21:28 in the game. Unable to play much at even strength, the offense struggled to find it’s rhythm and finished the game with just 19 shots on goal. Strong performances from the Rangers came from Martin Straka, Dominic Moore and Marek Malik who all played well in the loss. The top line once again looked dangerous in the offensive zone, while Weekes let down an otherwise solid night with the weak goal.
The Rangers next game will be at New Jersey on Saturday.
OTG Star Rangers | |
« | Dominic Moore |
«« | Marek Malik |
««« | Martin Straka |
Report Card | ||
B+ | Martin Rucinsky | Nice goal to even the game at 2-2 in the first, played strongly again on the 1st line |
B+ | Marek Malik | Best we’ve seen from Malik so far this season |
B+ | Dominic Moore | Plenty of hustle, continues to draw power plays and rewarded with a goal |
B+ | Steve Rucchin | Stronger game from Rucchin, passing and defending |
B+ | Martin Straka | Continues to pass well, now has three assists |
B | Marcel Hossa | A pretty goal to start things going for the Rangers, could do more away from the puck |
B | Jaromir Jagr | Canadiens did a good job shutting him down for the most part |
B | Michael Nylander | Another solid game passing the puck |
B | Fedor Tyutin | Shot on the power play directly lead to the tying goal in the third period |
B | Jason Ward | Continues to be a revelation on the PK |
B- | Blair Betts | Not much of a factor tonight, continues to do well killing penalties |
B- | Ryan Hollweg | Played another annoying game, but needs to be careful with the penalties |
B- | Darius Kasparaitis | Made few mistakes playing against the speedy Canadiens forwards |
B- | Jason Strudwick | Involved in the mix-up that gave the Canadiens their second goal |
C+ | Michal Rozsival | Little factor in the game |
C | Kevin Weekes | Bad goal at the end tarnished another solid performance |
C | Jed Ortmeyer | Lost his check on the first goal and looked a little out of sync |
C- | Jamie Lundmark | Two penalties too many |
C- | Tom Poti | Continues to take undisciplined penalties, and contribute little on offense |
B | Tom Renney | The team came out to play again, but needs to get a handle on discipline |
Game Notes |
Petr Prucha and Maxim Kondratiev were healthy scratches on the night, Ville Nieminen remained out with a groin injury |
Darius Kasparaitis, Steve Rucchin and Jaromir Jagr each wore an “A” for the game |
Dominic Moore scored his first NHL goal |
Kevin Weekes registered his first loss as a Ranger |
Statistical Streaks |
Games Played |
Blair Betts – 2 games Ryan Hollweg – 2 games Marcel Hossa – 2 games Jaromir Jagr – 2 games Darius Kasparaitis – 2 games Jamie Lundmark – 2 games Marek Malik – 2 games Dominic Moore – 2 games Michael Nylander – 2 games Jed Ortmeyer – 2 games Tom Poti – 2 games Michal Rozsival – 2 games Steve Rucchin – 2 games Martin Rucinsky – 2 games Martin Straka – 2 games Jason Strudwick – 2 games Fedor Tyutin – 2 games Jason Ward – 2 games Kevin Weekes – 2 games |
Goals |
Marcel Hossa – 2 games (2 goals) |
Assists |
Jaromir Jagr – 2 games (3 assists) Steve Rucchin – 2 games (3 assists) Martin Straka – 2 games (3 assists) Michael Nylander – 2 games (2 assists) |
Points |
Jaromir Jagr – 2 games (2 goals, 2 assists) Michael Nylander – 2 games (1 goal, 2 assists) Steve Rucchin – 2 games (3 assists) Martin Straka – 2 games (3 assists) Marcel Hossa – 2 games (2 goals) Martin Rucinsky – 2 games (1 goal, 1 assist) |
Penalties |
Darius Kasparaitis – 2 games (4 minors) Ryan Hollweg – 2 games (3 minors) Tom Poti – 2 games (3 minors) |
Shots on Goal |
Jaromir Jagr – 2 games (8 shots) Darius Kasparaitis – 2 games (4 shots) Martin Rucinsky – 2 games (4 shots) Fedor Tyutin – 2 games (4 shots) Marek Malik – 2 games (3 shots) Martin Straka – 2 games (3 shots) Marcel Hossa – 2 games (2 shots) Steve Rucchin – 2 games (2 shots) |
Team |
Games with a power play goal scored – 3 games (5 goals) Games with a power play goal conceded – 2 games (2 goals) Games without being shutout – 4 games (3/30/2004 v Devils) Games with at least 2 goals scored – 4 games Games with at least 3 goals scored – 4 games Games since last shutout – 14 games (3/9/2004 v Thrashers) Games with 4 or fewer goals conceded – 4 games Games with 5 or fewer goals conceded – 15 games Games with 6 or fewer goals conceded – 15 games Games with 7 or fewer goals conceded – 35 games Games with 8 or fewer goals conceded – 35 games Games with 7 or fewer goals conceded – 35 games |