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NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES

November 6, 2011 (Game 13, Home Game 6)

Madison Square Garden – New York, New York

Team Notes:

–        The Rangers defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 3-0, tonight at Madison Square Garden to close out their six-game homestand with a 4-1-1 mark.

–        New York improved to 7-3-3 (17 pts) on the season, including a 4-1-1 record at home.

–        The Rangers’ 4-1-1 start through six games at Madison Square Garden is their best start at home since they posted a record of 5-0-1 through six home games to begin the 1992-93 season.

–        The Blueshirts have registered at least one point in eight of the last 10 games, posting a record of 7-2-1 over the span, and have won each of their last four games.

–        Tonight’s win was the first by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden against a team based in Winnipeg since a 6-4 victory over the previous Winnipeg Jets franchise on October 11, 1995.

–        New York notched one power play goal in tonight’s contest, and has now registered seven goals with the man advantage in the last seven games (7-36, 19.4% over the span).

–        The Rangers swept their second of 14 back-to-back sets on the season with tonight’s win and last night’s 5-3 victory against Montreal.  New York improved to 1-0-1 in the second game of back-to-backs, including a 1-0-0 mark at home.  Since 2009-10, New York is 22-8-3 in the back-end of back-to-back sets, including a 10-3-1 mark at MSG.

–        The Blueshirts now own a 2-0-0 record vs. Winnipeg this season, and are 1-0-0 at home.  The Rangers have held the Jets scoreless in five shorthanded situations (5-5, 100%) in two games, while their power play is 3-11 (27.3%) in the season series.

Player Notes:

–        Martin Biron posted his first shutout of the season, and 27th of his career, stopping all 23 shots faced to record his third consecutive win.  He is now 3-0-0 on the season, with a 0.95 goals against average, a .963 save percentage and one shutout.  Biron improved to 2-0-0 with a 0.50 goals against average and a .980 save percentage in two games vs. the Jets this season.

–        Marian Gaborik notched three points, including two goals (one empty net) and a power play assist, posted a plus-two rating and led all skaters with six shots on goal in 19:08 of ice time.  He registered nine points (three goals, six assists) during the Rangers’ six-game homestand, and now leads the team in scoring with seven goals and 13 points on the season.

–        Derek Stepan opened the game’s scoring with a power play goal at 10:01 of the second period, and an assist and posted a plus-two rating in 19:24 of ice time to earn first star honors.  He has recorded six points (two goals, four assists) and a plus-five rating in the last five games, and is now tied for the team lead in power play goals (two) and power play points (four), and fourth in scoring with seven points (two goals, five assists) on the season.

–        Artem Anisimov tallied two assists and posted a plus-two rating, and has now recorded five points (one goal, four assists) in the last four games including four assists in the last two contests.  Anisimov leads the team with seven assists and ranks third in scoring with eight points on the season.

–        Michael Del Zotto recorded a power play assist and logged 23:15 of ice time in the contest.  He has tallied five points (two goals, three assists) in the last seven games, including four points (two goals, two assists) during the Rangers’ six-game homestand.  Del Zotto is now tied for the team lead in power play assists (three) and third in power play points (three), and ranks second among Rangers defensemen in assists (four) and is tied for second in points (six).

–        Dan Girardi led all skaters with a season-high, five blocked shots and logged a team-high, 26:47 of ice time.  He leads the team with 34 blocked shots, and ranks first among all NHL skaters in average ice time (27:58).

–        Brian Boyle and Andre Deveaux tied for the game-high with four hits in the contest.

Post-Game Quotes:                                                      

–        John Tortorella on the team…

“We have to try to establish ourselves.  I think this is the start for us.  It opened up our game pretty well.  Some guys, you can see their games coming.  You look at Stepan and he’s stepping out.  Our defense, you just see guys getting into their games.”

–        Martin Biron on the homestand…

“We showed some resilience, some battle and some heart. You lose a couple of tough ones (the first two games) and then come back with four big wins. Being able to do it the way we have: playing solid defensively; special teams picking it up for us; being able to use a lot of guys today – we used pretty much everyone and really tried to help out in every aspect. It’s hard when you go on the road for that amount of time because sometimes there’s a let-down feeling that we’re home and it’s going to be a lot easier. There was none of that. It was a lot of hard work that has paid off in the end and that has to keep going.”

–        Derek Stepan on his line’s play…

“I feel like we all create space for each other and I think that’s the biggest thing. And Gaby [Gaborik], the way he is, I don’t even know how he does some of the things he does. And me and Artie [Anisimov], we’re finding ourselves, finding space and creating space within ourselves. The three of us have good chemistry and with that chemistry, it’s awesome.”

Team Schedule:

Please note there is no practice scheduled for tomorrow, November 7.  The Blueshirts’ next practice is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 8, at the MSG Training Center.