NEW YORK – The Garden Faithful made its decision.

And as chants of “Re-sign Av-ery!” rained down from the rafters, the forward shared a chuckle with his linemate.

“I think Jags had a pretty good kick out of it,” Sean Avery said. “Obviously you feel good anytime the home fans are saying something like that.”

Avery had a reason to make the fans smile, since it was his two goals that helped the Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, breaking the team from its two game slide.

Yet, the left wing knows why his production has skyrocketed. By being aligned with Jaromir Jagr, he is able to get open, since the Ranger captain usually has two defenders on him and one will go onto Brandon Dubinsky, because the center brings the puck into the zone.

“I know playing with Jags I’m going to get a lot of chances,” Avery said. “The ice is going to be open. You can see that on the fourth goal. Hal Gill goes and leaves his place in front and tries to check Jags, and I’m standing all alone. I’ve just got to get in the right position.”

Actually for most of the game, the Rangers were in the right place, although it became touchy during the first three minutes of the second, when Pittsburgh tied the game on two turnovers. Both Jarkko Ruutu and Jordan Staal lit the lamp causing Tom Renney to call a time out.

“I told them up to that point in time, we had real good control of the game and we had a couple of minutes that weren't doing us any favors," Renney said. “That, if we got back to what we were doing earlier, we could control the game from here on in. ‘Keep your composure. Keep your game simple. And if you manage the puck properly, you'll manage both teams.’”

It worked and Fredrik Sjostrom was able to break the tie when he intercepted a pass just 44 seconds after the time out, giving the Blueshirts the lead for good.

“We were a little bit on our heels at that time of the game, so I was really happy to get us back there,” Sjostrom said. “It was a little bit of a wake-up call.”

After that, the Rangers controlled the game and shut down the Pittsburgh attack – which was lacking Sidney Crosby – in the third period, holding the Penguins to five shots.

And that allowed Henrik Lundqvist to record his 22 saves for the game.

“He played well,” Renney said. “He is very focused and really on top of his game.”

Added Jagr: “We didn’t give them many chances and when he did give them chances, Henrik was good.”

Ryan Callahan and Martin Straka scored the other two goals for the Rangers, who are now 16-6-1 against the Atlantic Division.

Notes: Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and defensive end Justin Tuck were at the game…The Rangers face the Atlantic division the rest of the way with three games against New Jersey, and two a piece versus the Flyers, Islanders and Penguins.

  E-mail this story |  Printer-friendly |  Discuss