In an original six battle at MSG on Wednesday night, the injury-riddled Montreal Canadiens dumped the New York Rangers 6–3 thanks to a hat trick from Robert Lang.
In their last meeting with the Canadiens, in Montreal on Dec. 4, the Rangers got pounded 6–2.
The Rangers started the season strong going 10–2–1, but since then their record is only 14–13–2. They have been relatively injury free, losing only 10 man-games to injury as opposed to Montreal’s 88 and are in a dogfight for first place in the highly-competitive Atlantic Division.
The Blueshirts were coming off a solid 4–0 win over the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.
“I think we’re getting better, week by week, day by day,” said Chris Drury in an interview with TSN during the second intermission. “[Tom] Renney works us hard.”
Goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist recorded his first shutout of the season on that night. He’s well behind his shutout pace from last year when he led the league with 10.
This is a big season for the Canadiens, hockey’s most successful franchise—their centenary season and one in which they will host the All-Star game. In a classic example of fan voting gone wrong, the Canadiens will have four starters on the Easter Conference All-Star team—Cary Price, Alex Kovalev, and defensemen Andrei Markov, and Mike Komisarek.
The Canadiens have been fairly consistent this season by amassing points without being overly impressive. Prior t Wednesday’s win, top scorer and former Ranger Alex Kovalev led the team with 28 points in 38 games, which is a far cry from his outstanding performance last season.
Asked after the first period if he had any special feeling on returning to MSG to face the Rangers Kovalev responded, “I don’t feel that way anymore. It’s been a long time. The way I left New York, I don’t miss it.”
Kovalev gave Montreal a quick one-goal lead, capitalizing on a give-away by Henrik Lundqvist in the third minute of the first period.
Chris Drury equalized for the Rangers but less than 90 seconds later Lundqvist gave up a bad rebound off a long Roman Hamrlik shot. Guillaume Latendresse slapped a knuckler past the Swedish goalie for a 2–1 Montreal lead after the first period.
Ryan Callahan scored the only goal of the second period as he one-timed a slap shot past Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak off a nice feed from Scott Gomez.
In the third period, the Canadiens scored two power play goals to take a two-goal lead—quite surprising considering the Rangers own the league’s best penalty kill.
Michal Roszival, the Rangers’ best blueliner got the Rangers to within one at 4–3 by converting a nice pass from Nikolai Zherdev.
Then came the Robert Lang show. Taking the puck from his own blue line, the 38-year old Czech skated through the Rangers defense, making Mark Staal look like a pylon before firing high over Lundqvist’s shoulder—a highlight reel goal.
Lang would complete the hat trick with an empty netter.
The Blueshirts now head for the road for the next five games.
The Rangers are struggling to score goals and their goaltending, which was rock-solid last year, has started to show some cracks as Lundqvist put in another inconsistent performance Wednesday.
In their last meeting with the Canadiens, in Montreal on Dec. 4, the Rangers got pounded 6–2.
The Rangers started the season strong going 10–2–1, but since then their record is only 14–13–2. They have been relatively injury free, losing only 10 man-games to injury as opposed to Montreal’s 88 and are in a dogfight for first place in the highly-competitive Atlantic Division.
The Blueshirts were coming off a solid 4–0 win over the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.
“I think we’re getting better, week by week, day by day,” said Chris Drury in an interview with TSN during the second intermission. “[Tom] Renney works us hard.”
Goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist recorded his first shutout of the season on that night. He’s well behind his shutout pace from last year when he led the league with 10.
This is a big season for the Canadiens, hockey’s most successful franchise—their centenary season and one in which they will host the All-Star game. In a classic example of fan voting gone wrong, the Canadiens will have four starters on the Easter Conference All-Star team—Cary Price, Alex Kovalev, and defensemen Andrei Markov, and Mike Komisarek.
The Canadiens have been fairly consistent this season by amassing points without being overly impressive. Prior t Wednesday’s win, top scorer and former Ranger Alex Kovalev led the team with 28 points in 38 games, which is a far cry from his outstanding performance last season.
Asked after the first period if he had any special feeling on returning to MSG to face the Rangers Kovalev responded, “I don’t feel that way anymore. It’s been a long time. The way I left New York, I don’t miss it.”
Kovalev gave Montreal a quick one-goal lead, capitalizing on a give-away by Henrik Lundqvist in the third minute of the first period.
Chris Drury equalized for the Rangers but less than 90 seconds later Lundqvist gave up a bad rebound off a long Roman Hamrlik shot. Guillaume Latendresse slapped a knuckler past the Swedish goalie for a 2–1 Montreal lead after the first period.
Ryan Callahan scored the only goal of the second period as he one-timed a slap shot past Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak off a nice feed from Scott Gomez.
In the third period, the Canadiens scored two power play goals to take a two-goal lead—quite surprising considering the Rangers own the league’s best penalty kill.
Michal Roszival, the Rangers’ best blueliner got the Rangers to within one at 4–3 by converting a nice pass from Nikolai Zherdev.
Then came the Robert Lang show. Taking the puck from his own blue line, the 38-year old Czech skated through the Rangers defense, making Mark Staal look like a pylon before firing high over Lundqvist’s shoulder—a highlight reel goal.
Lang would complete the hat trick with an empty netter.
The Blueshirts now head for the road for the next five games.
The Rangers are struggling to score goals and their goaltending, which was rock-solid last year, has started to show some cracks as Lundqvist put in another inconsistent performance Wednesday.
