HOME COOKING 

VERSUS

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES

March 18, 2011 – New York Rangers 6, Montreal Canadiens 3 (Game No. 72, Home No. 36)

Click Here For The Official Game Summary

• The Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 6-3, tonight at Madison Square Garden to improve to 38-30-4 overall, including a 17-16-3 mark at home.  The Blueshirts have won five of their last six games, including their last three games at MSG.
• The Blueshirts have tallied six or more goals in three of their last five games, including each of their last three home games.
• New York notched five goals in the first period, which is a season-high for goals in a single period.  The last time the Rangers scored at least five goals in a period was on Mar. 17, 2007 vs. Boston (six goals in Period 2), and the last time the Rangers tallied at least five goals in the first period of a game was on Dec. 15, 1999 vs. Los Angeles (six goals).  The last time the Blueshirts notched at least five goals in a period vs. Montreal was on Jan. 10, 1986, when they registered five goals in the second period.  *statistic courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau
• The Rangers tallied three goals in a 67-second span of the first period – at 17:09, 17:41 and 18:16 (Callahan, Gaborik and Boyle) – which is the fastest three goals by the Blueshirts since they notched three in 65 seconds of the first period on November 8, 2001 at Long Island (Fleury, Leetch and McCarthy).
• Tonight marked the 10th time this season New York registered six or more goals in a game, marking the 26th time in franchise history the Rangers accomplished the feat and first time since they tallied six or more goals in 11 games during the 1996-97 season. *statistic courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau
• Henrik Lundqvist turned aside 22 shots to register his 30th win of the season to extend his NHL record by registering 30 or more wins in six consecutive seasons to begin his career, and extend his team record with six straight 30-win seasons.  Lundqvist improved to 30-24-4 overall, including a 13-13-3 mark at home.  He is now 5-1-0 in the last six games, with wins in his last three contests.
• The Rangers have registered 11 power play goals in 42 attempts (26.2%) in their last 11 games.
• Artem Anisimov opened the game’s scoring with an unassisted goal at 5:28 of the first period, and added an assist to post his ninth multi-point performance of the season and capture first star honors.  He has recorded seven points (three goals, four assists) in the last six games.
• Ryan Callahan tallied one goal and tied his season-high with a game-high, seven shots on goal.  The goal was his 22nd of the season, which ties his career-high previously set during the 2008-09 season.  He leads the Rangers in scoring with 12 goals and 20 points (12 goals, eight assists) in 20 games since returning from injury on Feb. 1, including 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) in the last 15 contests.
• Vinny Prospal notched a power play goal and added an assist on the game-winner to extend his scoring streak to eight games (two goals, eight assists over the span), and has tallied 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in the last 11 contests.  He leads the team with 11 assists and ranks second in scoring with 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 19 games since returning from injury on Feb. 3.  Prospal’s eight-game point streak is a Rangers’ season-high, and the most by a Blueshirt since Marian Gaborik posted an eight-game scoring streak from Nov. 5, 2009 at Edmonton to Nov. 25, 2009 at Florida.  The eight-game scoring streak is also the longest by Prospal since he registered a 13-game point streak from Oct. 26, 2005 at New Jersey to Nov. 20, 2005 at Carolina.
• Erik Christensen tallied two assists, including the primary assist on the game-winning goal.  He has now registered at least one point in six of his last eight games (five goals, six assists over the span), including a three-game point streak since not dressing in two games on Mar. 6 and Mar. 9 (two goals, three assists).
• Dan Girardi registered one goal, added one power play assist, and was credited with four hits and three blocked shots in a game-high, 28:03 of ice time.  His goal at 10:25 of the first period established a new career-high for points in a season, and his assist at 17:15 of the third was his 30th point of the season.  Girardi has recorded five points (one goal, four assists) in the last six games.
• Marc Staal recorded two assists, including one on the power play, and posted a plus-two rating.  He has registered three assists in the last two games.  Staal’s power play assist at 17:15 of the third period was his career-high-tying, 19th of the season.
• Marian Gaborik tallied the game-winning goal at 17:41 of the first period to extend his scoring streak to four games (four goals, one assist over the span).
• Brian Boyle notched one goal and registered five shots on goal in the contest, and is now tied for second on the team with a career-high, 21 goals on the season.
• Brandon Prust recorded one assist and was assessed a fighting major at 0:01 of the first period to capture third star honors.  Prust extended his scoring streak to three games, registering one goal and two assists over the span.
• Brandon Dubinsky registered one assist, was credited with four hits and won a team-high, 13 faceoffs in 17 attempts (76%).  He has tallied four points (one goal, three assists) in the last five games.
• Mats Zuccarello tallied one assist and has now registered five points (three goals, two assists) in the last six games.
• The Blueshirts’ practice schedule for tomorrow, Mar. 19, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.
• The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday, Mar. 20, at CONSOL Energy Center (12:30 p.m.), in an Atlantic Division match-up.  The game will be televised live on NBC and can be heard on 970 The Apple and newyorkrangers.com.

POST-GAME QUOTES

John Tortorella on the third win at home in a row…

“You gain confidence.  We are really happy we accomplished that.  Even on the road, our starts have been better.  I thought this was a real important one.  With some rest in between home games, you need to find a way to win it and we did that.”

Brandon Dubinsky on tonight’s game…

“We knew they (Montreal) were on a back-to-back and we knew we had to have a quick start.  The energy in the building was as good as it has been all year.  It was exciting and loud and that made us want to go.  It was a playoff like atmosphere.  It was exciting to play in that atmosphere and that rivalry and it was even bigger to put the puck into the net early on.”

Dan Girardi on tonight’s game …

“We wanted to start off good at home.  The fans really got us going – they were nice and loud and we got off to a great first period.”

newyorkrangers.com