Blueshirts Bite Sharks

by: Joe McDonald | Publisher and Editor-in-Chief | Monday, February 18, 2008



NEW YORK – A month ago, Jonathan Cheechoo’s first period goal would have sent the Rangers into a funk.

A month ago, the Rangers would have tried too hard to come back and then the Sharks would have taken advantage of a mistake to add to their lead.

But now, all of that is in the past.

After giving up the first goal, Ryan Callahan scored two tallies and Chris Drury scored on the power play for the game winner to give the Blueshirts a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks, for their first win over the Western Conference this season and four points during this weekend's back-to-back set.

“I’m glad we won both games,” said forward Brendan Shanahan. “We played a really good third period especially because we kept our poise. We got the go ahead goal. There were a couple of shifts where they were in our zone and our net wasn’t really well protected. That’s one thing we really improved on this year, protecting leads.”

After Cheechoo’s goal, 3:31 into the game, the Rangers made a stand, limited San Jose chances, while creating their own opportunities. And then, Drury was able to set up Callahan to tie the game at one with 8:26 left in the first.

“These are two big wins to build on,” Callahan said of the Rangers 5-1 win over Buffalo on Saturday and then Sunday’s victory. “We have a long road ahead of us, but we can move forward and go from here. We have a lot of character in this room from top to bottom. You have to follow your leaders and go from there.”

As one of the team leaders, Drury has come on of late, scoring seven goals in the last nine games and he broke a team 0-39 power play drought at home with his game winner at 5:44 of the second, when he sent a laser from the point past Evgeni Nabokov, who stopped 30 shots on the night. Drury was able to get open and took a feed from Scott Gomez.

“Eventually, we got a pretty good three-on-two,” Drury said. “Scotty is pretty dangerous when he has speed like that. It’s pretty much everyone else’s job to get open and he found me. It was a great play by him.”

Added goaltender Henrik Lundqvist: “He's impressing me right now the way he's stepped up the last couple of weeks. You can see how he reads the game. So many times he just takes the passes when they try to break up. Not just scoring, but all the other stuff he's doing so well for us right now. I mean, he's going to play a big part in whether we make it or not. And right now, he's delivering."

With the lead, Lundqvist took over, who was just as sharp as he was on Saturday against the Sabres. He stopped the Sharks’ high power offense in the third and finished with 29 saves.

“We talked before the game about how we hadn't won against a Western Conference team and we said: 'It's about time,'” Lundqvist said. “I think, after we scored the second goal, we played really smart. It was a good weekend for us.”

And with the two wins, the Rangers go back into the playoff picture, moving into sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 21 games left to play.

Notes: A day after signing Dan Girardi, the Rangers extended his blue line mate Fedor Tyutin to a four-year, $11.4 million contract.