Rangers Recap: Avs Take The Game In The 3rd
Tonight's shaping up to be an awful night for New York sports fans. Rangers collapse in the third period after a promising start and Cliff Lee is running train on the Yanks in the Bronx. With that said, I'm a pissed off, angry little irishmen and this post is going to be short and sweet.
After coming out flat in the first, Torts wisely called T and it changed the pace of the game. Prior to the timeout the Avs turned the game into a track meet and were firing all sorts of shots at Lundqvist. After the Rangers took a breather and refocused they managed to take some control of the game and it carried over into the second period.
The third period tells the tale and the Rangers had a good start but went from having complete control to losing the game in a matter of 45 seconds or so. It began with a power play goal by Chris Stewart in which Michal Rozsival once again completely lost track of his man in front of the net. Stewart took a pass from the corner and buried it five-hole on Hank. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen this play happen with Rozsival on the ice. Before I start a mindless Rozsival rant, ill leave that be.
The insurance goal for the Avs was a bit of puck luck and Dan Winnik should probably buy a lottery ticket after the game. The garbage goals count as much as the pretty ones and unfortunately for the Rangers it took them out of the game.
As I'm writing this Josh Hamilton hits a moonshot to right field that somehow doesn't find the seats... Brutal.
Some quick hits:
Frolov netted his first goal as a Ranger - wiht Gabby out he's the Rangers only proven scoring threat and if has any hopes of finding a well paying NHL job next year, there better be more goals in that stick.
The Rangers D pinched at nearly every opportunity in the first and second period with the game tied. Yet in the third after they were down by two it seemed like their forechecked slowed and their D played more conservatively. Can't say that makes a whole lot of sense.
Although the Rangers didn't capitalize on the power play chances, it was nice to see Derek Stepan take control of the play in the offensive zones. He made some nice plays that on any other night could've been money in the bank.
Craig Anderson had a great game. The Rangers peppered him with shots but he was almost always square to the shooter. Scoring is going to be tough without Gaborik (no shit) and the Rangers are going to need to crash the net and bury some ugly goals to get by.
Ok - Yanks game is calling me. If I missed anything have at it in the comments.