Rangers Over Power Caps

Just when we thought the Rangers would go O for a gazillion on the power play, last night, Scotty Gomez broke the schnide with his first goal of the year and the Rangers first PP goal of the year and the Caps first goal given up on a penalty kill this year. A lot of firsts. There were four PP goals in the first period and the Rangers scored three of them and basically that was the game as the goalies took over after that. The Rangers were 3-8 on the PP and the Caps were 1-5. "Ollie The Goalie" Kolzig was outstanding for the Caps keeping them in the game with a 38 save night and winning third star honors. Straka (2) and Rozsival (2) were the other goal scorers for the Rangers. Jagr had three assists and was voted the number three star. Gomez was number two star. Lundqvist was, well he was Lundqvist, with 24 saves but eleven big ones in the third period.

If truth be told the Rangers won because my wife, Maryann, was there. She has run her personal game winning streak to eight games. The last eight home games she has attended we have won included last year's fourth game against Buffalo which tied the series. Bad news. She is not attending tonight's game. The pressure is on for me to swap spots with her, but I won't do it. No one in Ranger fandom has suffered as much as I and that streak will continue.

The lineup returned to normalcy last night. Paul Mara was back in the lineup and was paired with Marc Staal, who quietly, is doing his job. Each got over 13 minutes of ice time and about a minute and a half of PK and did well. The stars on the backline were Tyutin and Girardi. Both have elevated their games. Tyutin had two shots and four hits while Girardi had five shots and five hits. Girardi is making his presence felt. Dubinsky had one shot on goal in over seven minutes of ice time. His shot was a breakaway when he was tripped and crosschecked and no call. The crosscheck was by old friend Tom Poti who was booed all night. Blair Betts had a breakaway also on a beautiful play he created but he was stopped by Kolzig who always seems to play great at the Garden.

ICINGS: Jagr passed Paul Coffey on the all time point scoring list and now will set his sights on Ray Bourque for tenth place. He is only 48 points behind him. Quite an achievement. A few thousand empty seats last night. Did not the corporate guys show up or is Friday night too much of a party night? Gotta run and catch my grandson Nicholas's hockey game.

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