THE NEW MATH: 19 + 42 + 4 = 2

      VERSUS     

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
February 9, 2012 (Game 52, Home Game 25)
Madison Square Garden — New York, NY

                                                 1st   2nd   3rd   OT   Final

Tampa Bay Lightning              1      2        0       0      3

New York Rangers                   0      2        1       1      4

Team Notes:

• The Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3, in overtime tonight at Madison Square Garden for their fifth win in seven games, and are now 17-5-1 in their last 23 games.
• New York has posted a record of 34-13-5 (73 pts) on the season, including a 17-6-2 mark at home.

• The Rangers improved to 9-3-3 in their last 15 games against the Lightning.
• Each of the last seven meetings between the Rangers and Lightning have been decided by two goals or less, including five that were separated by one goal and four that required extra time.
• The Rangers’ .702 win% through 52 games is the team’s best start in 39 years, when the 1972-73 Blueshirts began the season with a 35-13-4 record (.712 win%), and is tied as the second best start in franchise history.
• The Blueshirts’ 17-6-2 (36 pts) mark at MSG is their best start at home through 25 games since 1995-96 (18-2-5, 41 pts).
• The Blueshirts opened up a five-point gap over Boston for first place in the Eastern Conference, and pulled to within one point of Detroit for first in the league overall.
• 10 different Rangers registered at least one point, including four different goal scorers.
• The Rangers out-shot the Lightning, 31-17, including a 10-3 advantage in the third period and overtime combined.  New York leads the league with a .783 win% when out-shooting their opponent (18-5-0).
• New York out-hit Tampa Bay, 37-13, with seven players registering three or more hits.  The Rangers entered the contest ranked first in the NHL in hits.

Player Notes:

• Derek Stepan notched a goal and added a power play assist in 21:26 of ice time.  The assist was his 24th of the season, tying his career-high for most assists in a season established as a rookie last season.  He has now recorded four points (one goal, three assists) in the last three games.
• Michael Del Zotto tallied two assists, including one on the power play and one on the overtime, game-winning goal, and was credited with three hits in 20:26 of ice time.  He has now registered five points (two goals, three assists) in the last six games.  Del Zotto surpassed the 20-assist mark for the second time in his career.
• Brad Richards notched the game-winning goal at 2:37 of overtime, and registered three shots on goal in 14:37 of ice time.  The goal was his team-high, seventh game-winning goal (tied for second in the league) of the season, and his second career overtime, game-winner (first since his rookie season in 2000-01).
• Ryan Callahan registered a power play goal, three shots on goal and was credited with three hits in 19:54 of ice time.  He is now six goals shy of 100 career NHL goals.
• Brian Boyle notched the game-tying goal at 10:13 of the third period, tied for the team-high with four shots on goal, was credited with three hits and led all Rangers with nine faceoff wins in 15 attempts (60%) to earn first star honors.  He has now tallied four points (two goals, two assists) in the last six games, and has been credited with 14 hits in the last three contests.
• Martin Biron made 14 saves to improve to 10-2-1 overall, including a 5-0-0 mark at Madison Square Garden.  The 10 wins are his most in a season since registering 29 wins with Philadelphia in 2008-09.  Biron’s start in net snapped a streak of 26 consecutive starts by Henrik Lundqvist against Tampa Bay, dating back to Nov. 10, 2005.
• Artem Anisimov tallied the primary assist on Richards’ overtime, game-winning goal, registered three shots on goal and won 6-9 face-offs (67%) in 18:28 of ice time.  He has recorded four points (one goal, three assists) in the last three games, and is now two points shy of 100 career NHL points.
• Carl Hagelin recorded the primary assist on Boyle’s game-tying goal in the third period and was credited with three hits in 14:41 of ice time.  He has now tallied nine points (one goal, eight assists) in the last 13 games.
• Marian Gaborik tallied an assist and tied for the team-high with a career-high, three blocked shots in 20:04 of ice time.  He has now registered 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in the last 10 games.
• Dan Girardi recorded an assist and posted a game-high, plus-two rating in 26:02 of ice time.  He has now tallied two assists in the last three games.
• Anton Stralman registered an assist on Boyle’s game-tying goal, and was credited with two hits and two blocked shots in 17:59 of ice time.  He has now recorded three points (one goal, two assists) in the last six games.
• Steve Eminger led all Rangers and tied for the game-high with five hits, and logged 12:59 of ice time while making his return to the lineup after missing the last 21 games with a separated shoulder sustained on Dec. 17.

Post-Game Quotes:

John Tortorella on Brad Richards …

“Again, he makes good plays. During a lot of the last game he made big plays on the power play.  Towards the end of the last game, he made a big play on that disallowed goal.  I think he’s playing better defensively. It’s a bit of an adjustment to him to how much concentration we do have defensively here.  He gets a little unlucky on the goal against where we are just trying to chip it in and it comes back and haunts us. But he’ll get through it.  Don’t give up on that guy. It would be the wrong thing to do.”

Ryan Callahan on tonight’s game…

“I thought we had our game going, pretty much the whole game. I thought we played well. We had a lot of time in their zone and a lot of chances. In the third, we kept at it, kept banging away, kept grinding them out, and obviously (Brian) Boyle with the big goal and Richie (Brad Richards) with the bigger one at the end.”

Brad Richards on the team’s play…

“We kind of just kept doing the same thing. Some big hits created turnovers and this time we scored a goal to tie it.  It freed us up a bit and we just kept moving our feet. They’re a dangerous team though, so we still had to do some good things defensively, get a big save there. Marty (Martin Biron) made two or three there.”

Team Schedule:

• The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, Feb. 11, at Wells Fargo Center (1:00 p.m.), in the first game of a back-to-back set.  The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.