2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series Updates – New York Rangers host the league leaders Vancouver Canucks
The New York Rangers will be hosting the league leaders, Vancouver Canucks at the Madison Square Garden this Thursday. This is the only scheduled meeting between the two teams. The last time these two met was last season in their only meeting which saw Vancouver
Canucks win the match with a commanding 4-1 score. An amazing fact ahead of the match is that it has been almost six years since the last time New York Rangers won the match against the Vancouver Canucks. The last time this happened was on the 4th
of February as New York Rangers registered a 4-3 win.
The Vancouver Canucks are one of those teams in the National Hockey League that don’t know how to lose. Bagging brilliant performance week in and week out has enabled them to lead the league with 62 points, 3 ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Vancouver Canucks has the best record in the regulation time not losing any of their last games play. They have won 13 out of these games and the 4 games that they have lost have all been during the course of overtime. Though they head the table but it has
not been easy coming and they still face many injury problems with the most notable being of Wojtek Wolski.
This Tuesday looked to break the record of the Vancouver Canucks of not losing in regulation time as they were up against the New York Islanders. The match looked to be heading into overtime when New York Islanders scored through Kevin Bieska to take the
lead.
However, Vancouver Canucks scored with just 34 seconds remaining to keep the record intact. The result of the match was a win for the league leaders after shootout with Mason Raymond’s goal during shootout proving to be the difference between the two sides.
"I tried it a few times in practice," Raymond said. "The two points we got may make a big difference."
Vancouver Canucks have played 42 games so far out of which they have won 28 games in regulation time and another 6 in overtime. They top the league with 62 points. On the other hand, New York Rangers have played 44 games so far winning 25 games in regulation
time, 3 in overtime scoring 53 points in ninth position in the league standings.
The New York Rangers problems playing home continue. The New York Rangers won their previous two games playing away before their home game this Tuesday saw the Montreal Canadiens handing them a defeat.
These problems continue from the past to season and things don’t look good as they host the league leaders. Their goal keeper, Henrik Lundqvist who is an All- Star made 36 saves in the previous game but Tuesday’s game saw him concede a soft goal as Montreal
Canadiens won the match 2-1. Benoit Pouliot was the goal scorer.
"He probably took the perfect shot there from the corner," Lundqvist said. "It is a shot I want to have back, but a lot of times that is the way I play it. I still have to make the save."
The match is expected to be won by the Vancouver Canucks with the star player Ryan Kesler scoring 5 goals in the last 4 games. However, New York Rangers will be glad to hear that Brandon Dubinsky is in hot form with 4 goals and 7 assists in the last 9 games.
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