Nigel Dawes Tied It In The 3rd, But The Rangers Failed To Extend The Series (Credit-Mike Reid)
Rangers Season Comes To An End
With the deck stacked against them, the Rangers headed to Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh looking to extend the series once again- unfortunately, the Penguins had other plans and closed the series out on home ice, defeating the Rangers 3-2 in overtime.
I had a feeling coming in that it was going to be a tight game and the first period showed exactly why. No goals, good goaltending and 3 penalties, all of which involved Jaromir Jagr, who took one and forced the other two.
In the second, The Pens broke the scoreless tie on the Power Play when Marian Hossa beat Lundqvist. It was a fantastic set up by Pittsburgh, you could tell they were on the verge of scoring and it was only a matter of time. In need of a goal, the Rangers gave up another one thanks to a brilliant play by Evgeni Malkin who never gave up on the puck and truly deserved the goal.
The Refs missed what could have given the Rangers a 4:00 Power Play as Chris Drury took a high stick to the face and was bleeding profusely. But as I’ve said so many times in the series, a lot of the calls favored the Pens and this was no exception. A lot of times when a Ref sees blood you assume something happened and call something; It’s has happened numerous times this season both helping and hurting the Rangers, but of course-when we needed it most, no call…
The Power Play would have been nice, but when on the man-advantage we were absolutely dreadful today and I actually realized that playing 5-on-5 may actually benefit the team.
To the third we go, desperation time for Tom Renney’s club and if you were in the bathroom or heating up some food you missed the Rangers get on the board, thanks to an unlikely source.
2 minutes into the Period, Lauri Korpikoski scored the first goal of his career. He hadn’t played in a game all season and had not even 2 minutes of ice time before he got his first career tally. The Rangers bench looked ready to pack it in, but with this goal we had new light…
The Rangers would tie the game up a little over a minute later when Nigel Dawes beat Marc-Andre Fleury. Both Ranger goals scored, 5-on-5. The 3rd was flying by, it felt like with the exception of the goals there were no whistles in the first 10 minutes, as both teams played carefully. The only penalty came with less than 2 minutes remaining, a 4:00 high stick on Chris Drury, the same Chris Drury was was laying on the ice, bloodied after being hit with a high stick gets called for the same penalty.
The Rangers would kill the first part of the Pens Power Play and with the game deadlocked at 2, they would head to OT, with over 2 minutes of Power Play time remaining for the Pens.
A strong kill by the Rangers as they held their own killing off the penalty, with Drury, one of if not the best penalty killers on the team looking on. That said, we had one chance shorthanded and gave it away. The offense had no momentum what so ever in the extra session and a favorable bounce off the skate of Dan Girardi put the puck right on Marian Hossa’s stick as he wound up and beat Henrik 5-hole.
The Blueshirts had their chances to win it but either missed wide or got stopped by Fleury, who did great all afternoon- on the other side of the ice, Lundqvist did an outstanding job keeping it close, he never allowed a soft goal as Pittsburgh simply out grinded us and capitalized on their chances more than the Rangers did.
The Ranger fan in me, again wants to blame the refs, after the Drury non-call, a missed call on Malkin for kicking Korpikoski, the fact that the Pens may have been offsides before scoring the game winner, in addition to a few other miscues but then the hockey fan in me came to terms with the fact that Pittsburh was the better team and deserved to move on.
The Rangers season ended in round 2, much like last year- Tom Renney and Co. will now pack it in and go on vacation while Sidney Crysby will lead his team in an all Pennsylvania Conference Final, Pens vs. Flyers… A nightmare for Ranger Nation, two teams we absolutely cannot stand duking it out for a chance to win the Prince of Whales trophy and play for the Cup… The matchup raises the question of, who do Ranger fans root for?
My answer is neither, pray that a team from the West brings home the Cup, but if a team from the East has to get it, let it be Pittsburgh, Crosby is the face of the league and it will bring in better ratings and more fans, also then it looks better that we lost to the team that won it all.
For more Rangers news, check out RANGER NATION and for coverage of the winning team (deservedly so) be sure to read Tony Ferrante’s MVN Blog, The Confuence of the Three Rivers.
Although the season is over for the Blueshirts, I will still be giving thoughts on the Conference Semifinals, as well as the Stanley Cup finals as they are happening and once the playoffs come to an end, I will be keeping tabs on what should be an interesting offseason for Glen Sather and the Rangers.
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5 Responses to “Rangers Season Comes To An End”
May 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Ok I agree, they really were not the better team, and they had their chances to win…. With that said, and I am surprized that I am even saying this, because I never thought I would, but I think the league wanted Crosby and the Pens to go on… there were just too many non-calls against the Rangers that really get called. Now I know the rangers were anemic in the PP, but for God sake, when theey have to stop the game to clean blood up off the ice, you would think it warranted a call… you can’t tell me there wouldn’t have been a call if it was Crosby’s blood….. and the slew footing by Malkin on Mara.. another obvious non call.. Did anyone hear the story about the Rangers comtacting the league about the penalty shot, why it was called, and the slew foot, and way it wasn’t called, but never got a reply???
May 5th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
its an interesting topic, whether or not the league needed crosby to go further or not… if you listened to mike and mike in espn radio (by no means the best hockey source) they had a debate over who is more important to the league right now, in terms of getting people to watch the games, crosby or new york, and to be honest, they seemed torn..
if people don’t like hockey, they arent going to watch because of crosby and new york city has about 4x as many people as pittsburgh.. oh well, wait til next year i guess…
i really didn’t want to dwell on the drury non-call since at best, our power play may have gotten off 3 shots, but either way that was a clear example of a call that needs to be made, which favored pittsburgh, a trend that went on the whole series.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
the officiated swayed to pittsburgh all series, there were more non calls for the pens and mystery calls against the rangers.
the penalty shot was a joke, there was no stick foul, he got pushed and fell down, drury bled all over the ice and nothing. not sure about the league but the TV dollar wanted to see more of SID. i lost a lot of respect for him this series, he is a talent but hes not all that he thinks he is.
i think the defense they tried to use threw lunqvust off more then it helped. the pens took away the outlet up the boards by takin the skates of the player trying to break out. the better team may have won, but i dont think the rangers got a fair shake.’
gotta sign avery, sjostrom looks like hes a player, and the fin for a game looked like he’ll be a player next year. line up needs some revamping but the core is young so we should be ok,………..in ending the season all i can say now is LETS GO GIANTS !!!!!!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
avery is a must, as are rozsival and mara, if you ask me.. i think they can continue to help the young guys grow.. still not sure if sanguinetti wil be ready for next year but as you saw.. korpikoski can play, may get a shot next year
May 7th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
be interesting if they can get the young russian over, rozsival is a must, mara i’m still not sure on. be interesting to see what they do with hollweg. team could look very different next year
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