VERSUS 
NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals – Game Three
Madison Square Garden, April 17, 2011
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | Final | Click Here For: | |
| Washington Capitals | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | Game Summary |
| New York Rangers | 0 | 1 | 2 | – | 3 | Event Summary |
Team Notes:
– The Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals, 3-2, today at Madison Square Garden, in Game Three of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal match-up. New York trails in the series 2-1.
– New York improved to 198-214-8 all-time in 420 playoff contests, including a 110-82-2 record at home, and are 15-17 in 32 postseason contests vs. Washington. The Rangers have now posted a 33-42 record all-time in Game Threes of playoff series.
– The Blueshirts out-shot the Capitals, 35-25, including a 27-18 advantage in the final 40 minutes.
– The Rangers were credited with 41 hits in the contest, and won 45 of 80 faceoffs (56%).
– New York notched one power play goal in seven attempts (10:33), and tallied one goal in three, four on four situations (2:42).
Player Notes:
– Brandon Dubinsky notched the game-winning goal (unassisted) with 1:39 remaining in regulation, added an assist, was credited with a game-high, seven hits and led all skaters with 25:45 of ice time. It is his fourth career multi-point performance in the postseason, and his second career playoff game-winning goal. Dubinsky also posted a game-high, plus-two rating.
– Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves in net to earn First Star honors, and improve to 1-2 with a 1.84 goals against average and a .921 save percentage in three playoff games. He has now appeared in 29 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 11 at Atlanta, and has started in each of the Rangers’ last 32 playoff contests.
– Vinny Prospal notched one goal at 8:01 of the third period, and was credited with three hits and four shots on goal. He has now recorded a team-high, 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 17 career playoff contests vs. Washington.
– Erik Christensen opened the game’s scoring with a power play goal at 5:30 of the second period, and won six of nine faceoff attempts (67%). During the regular season, the Rangers posted a record of 9-1-0 when he tallied a goal and 15-4-0 when he registered a point. The goal was Christensen’s first career playoff tally.
– Marc Staal registered the primary assist on Prospal’s third period goal, and was credited with two blocked shots in 23:10 of ice time. He has now recorded two points (one goal, one assist) in 10 career playoff contests vs. Washington.
– Wojtek Wolski tallied the primary assist on Christensen’s power play goal at 5:30 of the second period, and has now registered a team-high, two assists in the series. Including the final three games of the regular season, Wolski has now recorded five points (one goal, four assists) in the last six games.
– Bryan McCabe recorded one power play assist and three shots on goal, and led all skaters with 9:01 of ice time on the power play. Since being acquired from Florida on Feb. 26, each of McCabe’s seven points (two goals, five assists) have been tallied on the power play.
– Dan Girardi led all skaters with five blocked shots, and was credited with five hits in 21:59 of ice time. Girardi, who led all NHL skaters during the regular season with 236 blocked shots, ranked third in the league with nine blocked shots in the playoffs entering today’s contest.
– Brian Boyle led all skaters with a career-high, nine shots on goal, and was credited with four hits in 18:31 of ice time. He currently leads the league with 15 shots in three playoff contests. Boyle led the team with a career-high, 218 shots on goal during the regular season.
– Chris Drury won a game-high, 15 faceoffs in 19 attempts (79%), and now leads the league with a 77.1% faceoff winning percentage in the playoffs (27-35).
– Brandon Prust was credited with five hits, and is now tied for the team lead with 14 hits in three postseason contests. Entering today’s game, Prust was tied for 14th in the NHL with nine hits in the playoffs.
Post-Game Quotes:
– John Tortorella on today’s game…
“We scored some goals. I don’t think we did much different. I thought we got to the blue much better today. Again, it was a tight checking game. The chances were hard to come by for both teams. We found a way to score a couple of goals. There is no magic potion. We found a way to score three goals and they scored two.”
– Henrik Lundqvist on playoff hockey at Madison Square Garden …
“It is so fun to come back to New York and play playoff hockey – to feel the atmosphere and excitement is great. That is what you work so hard for all year. It was great. We just have to keep it going.”
– Brandon Dubinsky on today’s game…
“I thought we were better than we were in the first two games. We got our forecheck going and we were able to make more plays, get more shots, bring our bodies more than we did in the first two games of the series.”
– Chris Drury on the team…
“It is a gutsy group of guys. Another example of not giving in, or getting down and a huge goal by Dubi (Brandon Dubinsky).”
Team Schedule:
– The Blueshirts are scheduled for an off-ice practice at 12:00 p.m. tomorrow, April 18, at the MSG Training Center, with availability to follow.
Comments (2)
Prescottsays:
April 18, 2011 at 10:36 AMIt’s probably time to change the header of this blog.
“Connecticut Whale News & Commentary” is outdated.
The Whale have settled comfortably into position as 4th priority behind Greenville, Charlotte and the Rangers.
Mitch, while your first response may be to protest, but there is really no basis for argument. Compare the timeliness of your stories.
The Whale saved\extended their season on Sunday.
But no comments on that here from the pundit….
Mitch Becksays:
April 18, 2011 at 1:07 PMPrescott…
Perhaps you don’t understand what is going on here. This isn’t a full-time occupation for me. EVERYTHING that is done here is at my own expense…and trust me…it’s VERY expensive to do. I also own a business that does pay me…well sometimes these days…and takes an enormous amount of my time.
Not to be making excuses, but quite often I don’t get out of the XL Center or some of the other arenas that I’m covering the game at till after 10pm. I then have, other than Bridgeport which is really close to my home, a minimum of an hour and then I have to sit down and start writing. Now I know that sounds like a boo-hoo kind of an excuse, but it’s the truth. It was for that reason that I started the Twitter account which you’ll find at http://www.twitter.com/howlingstoday. That way you get all of the information immediately as the game is going on. So apart from the whining, that’s part of the story.
The vast majority of the things that I get from Greenville, Charlotte and the Rangers come to me in reasonably well written format already. I read, edit and spruce them up to make them more readable for you. If I write a particular piece on one of those teams, it’s pretty obvious.
The things that are here are the Connecticut Whale that I write, not the stuff that Bruce Berlet writes (obviously) or the actual press releases, are entirely written by me. Game stories take me to compile the data that’s included, and then to put it in proper format, upload the interviews and video, and then the hard part, actually sitting down to write it up, get the quotes into the story and so on takes me on average about 2-3 hours to do.
I have always believed from the minute I started doing this that I wouldn’t put out half-assed stuff. It was either quality or nothing at all. It’s how I was as a radio personality, stand-up comedian and it’s how I run my business. I know that quite often I’m much later to post than everyone else, but I like to think that I’m putting more stuff into it and that it’s worth the extra time. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong.
Now what I could do, for those of you out there that just want something quick right after the games, is do what they call a running story game recap. That would probably only take me ten to fifteen minutes to do. There’s not much to them other really than who scored, penalties and so on. I won’t give you a lot of detail like you’re used to getting here but it might satisfy your need for more instant gratification so to speak.
I’ll try that after Tuesday night’s game. PLEASE get back to me and let me know what you think of it.
I value ALL feedback that I get here… I could use less sarcasm in the comments, but your criticism has been heard and I will do what I can to make that work for you and the rest of the readers…
How’s that…?