FINISHING STRONG

VERSUS

The New York Rangers continue their VERY strong play and showing that they can potentially make a lot of noise in the playoffs if they can continue to play this brand of hockey. They’ve now won five straight and are showing no visible signs of slowing down.

Henrik Lundqvist was exceptional AGAIN and the top line of Artem Anisimov between Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan, all Hartford Wolf Pack graduates, was relentless and eventually generated the offense to win the game. If Marian Gaborik can get hot and start burying goals consistently the Rangers might be this year’s Philadelphia Flyers of last year and make a deep run in the chase for the Stanley Cup.

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES

March 22, 2011 – New York Rangers 1, Florida Panthers 0 (Game No. 74, Home No. 37)

Click Here For The Official Game Summary

• The Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers, 1-0, tonight at Madison Square Garden to extend their season-high winning streak to five games and register their 40th win of the season.  New York is now 40-30-4 overall, including 7-1-0 in their last eight contests, and are 18-16-3 at home.  The Blueshirts have won each of their last four games at MSG.
• The last time New York posted a five-game winning streak was when they won seven in a row last season, from Oct. 3, 2009 vs. Ottawa to Oct. 17, 2009 at Toronto.
• It is the fifth time in the last six years the Rangers posted 40 or more wins in a season, marking only the second time in franchise history the team accomplished the feat (1968-69 – 1973-74).
• The Rangers are one of five Eastern Conference teams to have registered at least five seasons of 40+ wins since 2005-06 (Montreal, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh).
• The Blueshirts did not commit a penalty in the contest, marking the first time since Jan. 9, 2009 at Buffalo (1-2, SO) the Rangers were not assessed a penalty.
• Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 22 shots faced to post his league leading, 10th shutout of the season, and improve to 32-24-4 overall with a 14-13-3 mark at home.  It is the second time in his career Lundqvist registered 10 shutouts in a season (2007-08).  He is now 7-1-0 with a 1.98 goals against average, .932 save percentage and two shutouts in the last eight games.
• Brandon Dubinsky notched the only goal of the contest at 7:49 of the third period to extend his scoring streak to four games (two goals, four assists over the span), and has tallied eight points (three goals, five assists) in the last seven contests.  Dubinsky also registered five shots on goal and was credited with three hits in 19:44 of ice time.
• Ryan Callahan tallied the primary assist on Dubinsky’s goal to extend his scoring streak to four games (three goals, four assists over the span), and has now registered 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in the last 17 contests.  He leads the Rangers in scoring with 13 goals and 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 22 games since returning from injury on Feb. 1.
• Artem Anisimov recorded one assist to extend his assist streak to four games (two goals, four assists over the span), and has now tallied 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the last eight games.  The four-game assist/point streak ties his career high, previously set on April 6, 2010 at Buffalo to April 11, 2010 at Philadelphia (four assists).
• The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, Mar. 24, at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), to close out their two-game homestand.  The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio and newyorkrangers.com.

POST-GAME QUOTES

John Tortorella on tonight’s game…

“I thought it was very important to win a game like that this time of year.  We have been scoring some goals the last little while, winning games that way.  Right from the start our start was good.  (Tomas) Vokoun was solid, it was going to be one of those games.  Hank made some key saves at times but we really defended.”

Henrik Lundqvist on tonight’s game…

“It is going to come down to low scoring games so you have to be sharp.  We didn’t get frustrated.  It is easy to get frustrated in a game like this.  The key is being mentally sharp.”

Brandon Dubinsky on tonight’s game…

“We expected them to come and play hard and they did.  They pressured and skated pretty well.  We knew we had to grind one out tonight.  We would, obviously, have liked to bury some opportunities and take some pressure off ourselves but this was a good test for us – a playoff type game that you have to grind away (at).”

Ryan Callahan on Henrik Lundqvist…

“To a man in the room we all know he is the most important guy for us to win games.  The big thing is that he is our guy and he is having a Vezina type of year.”

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