Tokarski, Refs, Stuns Rangers

So now it's a dogfight. What seemed like a coronation on Sunday night has turned into a must win game. Yes, a must win because if the Rangers go back to Montreal for game five on Tuesday at  Bell Centre tied at two, it will turn once again into The House Of Horrors.That can not happen.

The Rangers, with the assistance of the refs, blew it last night. Oh, I know the kid, Dustin Tokarski, was terrific, 35 saves. The Rangers had 14 shots in the first period, one goal, 13 shots in the second, no goals. The second period had the save of the night, when Tokarski robbed Martin St. Louis with a great glove save. The second period also had the blow of the night when Andrei Markov's shot somehow eluded Lundqvist.

There were tainted goals. Danny Briere's shot went off of the skate of Ryan McDonagh giving Montreal a 2-1 lead with just 3:02 left in the game. Chris Kreider's goal with 29 seconds left went off Alexi Emelin. The winning goal went in when a Lundqvist clearing hit Alex Galchenyuk and when into the net for the winner.

But the story of the night was the horrible officiating. Brandon Prust should have been hit with a five minute major and a game misconduct for hitting Derek Stepan in the head. It was not an accident and it definitely was on purpose. That was a major miss. How could four officials miss that play? That no call eventually resulted in Carcillo being ejected from the game when he ran Prust and shoved the ref. And what about "Super" Subban's slew foot on Dorsett? The ref was right there and he grabbed Dorsett to keep him away from Subban. Don't tell me the officials don't influence the game. I guess all that whining by Canadien head coach, Michel Therrien, has paid off. The NHL has always had a soft spot in their hearts for Le Habs.

So the officials will look at these infractions and Carcillo will be suspended three games and Prust will sit a game and get a nasty reprimand and coach Therrien will moan that there is no justice in the NHL. So it's Sunday night with the same incompetent officials. God help us.

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