Rangers Vs. Ducks: Marian Gaborik The Hero In The Shootout; Win 2-1
The New York Rangers came into this game knowing that had to keep up the hard work from last. The Rangers quickly established a forecheck early on in the game, and generated numerous chances. One of the most notable chances came from Ryan Callahan, who was absolutely ROBBED by Hiller with the glove on the play.
It wasn't until the 17:32 mark of the first period, when the Rangers finally got on the board. Jeff Woywitka notched his first goal of the season, and as a New York Ranger on the goal. The Rangers persistent offense was the main reason for setting up this goal. Ruslan Fedotenko muscled one of the back-checking forward off the puck, and wrapped it down low to Gaborik. Gaborik that found the wide open Woywitka at the point, and Woywitka finished.
Following that goal, Andrew Deveaux and George Parros dropped the gloves off the ensuing face-off. Both players got in some decent punches. I would like to point out that Deveaux handled himself pretty damn well against an established NHL fighter like Parros.
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The play from the first period, immediately carried over into the second period. Chances galore, and the Rangers even had two more power play opportunities that went unanswered. However, not to say that the power play was terrible, but they had their fair share of chances on the man advantage.
Bobby Ryan was able to tie the game up at one, on an absolute snipe over the shoulder of Henrik Lundqvist. I'm still unsure whether it was deflected or not, but my god what a shot, I'll give him credit on that one.
With some late chances by the Ducks, the Rangers were able to force overtime. About three-quarters of the way through overtime, the Rangers had a golden opportunity to put the game away. Marian Gaborik led the rush along with Ryan McDonagh and Michael Sauer. Gabby hit the trailing Sauer, who set-up McDonagh on the backdoor. I still think Hiller was able to get a pad over to make the sprawling save on McDonagh.
A game like this called for the shootout to decide the winner. The Rangers elected to shoot first, and sent out Erik Christensen, who queued his inner Forsberg once again, and scored on the one-handed drag. Teemu Selanne was able to tie the shootout up with a nifty back-hand over Hank's shoulder.
John Tortorella sent out an unfamiliar face in the shootout this time around, Marian Gaborik. Gaborik made a ridiculous move, added on about five extra dekes before slipping it past Hiller on the backhand. The "HENRIK" chants came raining down from Madison Square Garden as the game came down to the final shot.
Henrik Lundqvist was able to get a pad on it, and the Rangers came away with a 2-1 shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks. That marked the second win in a row for the Rangers, and places them seventh in the Eastern Conference. I would also like to point out that the Rangers have mostly two games in hand on every team above them.
The Rangers will have back-to-back games coming up this weekend against the Montreal Canadians on Saturday and the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
