Sometimes It Takes One...

Coach John Tortorella's style of play leaves teams out of gas in the third period... that's when the Rangers turn on the after burners. They have outscored the opposition 12-4 in the third coming into tonight's game against the Los Angeles Kings. But tonight, the afterburners didn't fire. The Blueshirts managed 1 shot on goal in the third... but boy was it an incredible shot.

The Rangers were outplayed tonight by a young and hungry King team. They looked like a tired team in playing their third game in four nights. "You just find a way to win when you're not on-and we were not on. We were behind in every facet of the game but we still found a way to win". Coach Tortorella added, "That's a good sign". Especially against one of the hottest teams in the league that also hadn't lost since opening night.

The problem for the Kings was that they were facing "The King". Henrik Lundqvist again was fabulous but again was run over 2 or 3 times. Would've been nice to have Donald Brasheer go after someone but he was a late scratch with an undisclosed injury. Make no mistake, Lundqvist stole this game for the Rangers and was named the first star. He made several beautiful saves highlighted by robbing Teddy Purcell point blank on a rebound with a seemingly wide open net in the first.

Vinny Prospal got the night started with a power play deflection of Michael Del Zotto's shot for his 200th NHL goal. Ryan Smyth came back with a deflection of his own just 1:10 later. A two man advantage and a brilliant Prospal feed left Ryan Callahan with a wide open net but the pass surprised him. He had a couple of whacks at it before Prospal slid around back of the net and popped it in off Kings goalie Erik Ersberg. But other than the power play (odd to have the PP be a strength) the Rangers could get little going in this one.

Brian Boyle opened the second period scoring against his former team off a nice feed from Michal Rozsival, who was otherwise disastrous. Boyle rang his first as a Ranger off the post, then Ersberg and in. Aaron Voros immediately dropped the gloves at the side of the net with Sean O'Donnell and had one of his patented throw 4 punches and fall over fights... it was a good one. The Kings answered again as Michal Handzus deflected Jack Johnson's wrist shot in for a power play goal and the score was 3-2 heading into the third.

Now the 1 third period shot I was talking about... yeah that was taken by Marian Gaborik so it wasn't really so much of a shot but a canon. Gaborik made a play in the defensive zone to get the puck around to Dan Girardi, then flew the zone. Vinny Prospal blindly threw the puck toward Gaborik who calmly gathered the puck with one hand as the pass was behind him... strolled down the left side to the hash... and unleashed one of the sickest snap shots I've ever seen. Top right corner in the blink of an eye. You pretty much felt bad for Erik Ersberg as no one could've stopped this thing. One big shot and one huge goal. The Rangers held on despite being outshot 10-1 in the third to win their 6th in a row, beating the Kings 4-2.

Notes:
Marian Gaborik made sure to pick up the puck on Prospal's 200th. Later while shorthanded on an empty net elected to be unselfish and slide the puck to Prospal for his hat trick but Jack Johnson swatted it out of mid air. Marian Gaborik is looking to be your other assistant captain and should be... Would've been nice if Brian Boyle had gotten a star in this game being that he scored against his old team and it was the game winner... Ales Kotalik had two assists and hit the post again... Michael Del Zotto leads all rookies in points with 2 goals and 5 assists... Gaborik leads the team with 6 goals, all scored in the third.