New York Rangers continue rolling with 3-2 win over Minnesota Wild -NHL Update
New York got back into form at the right time as the Rangers extended their lead in the Atlantic Division to three points above trailing Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-2 victory against Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, March 27, 2012, at the sold-out Xcel
Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
Playing confident and as a team, Rangers are not considering Pittsburgh as a threat to take over their top spot in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division.
"I'm not gonna pay much attention to what [the Penguins] are doing too much," said Rangers goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist. "It's in our hands."
Brian Boyle added the first of the night for New York and his eighth of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season as he fought the Minnesota defence and fired it past through Josh Harding, who was a striving goalie in the start of the year
but cannot find his form now.
Minnesota was one of the leading teams in the NHL during the earlier part of the hockey year but now, with a number of players injured and out of the scene, the Wild are finding it hard to make a comeback.
With the eighth place team in the Western Conference having 87 points, in this case the Phoenix Coyotes, Minnesota can be considered well out of the race having only 72 and six games remaining to be played.
Despite that, Minnesota is looking to continue working hard no matter what the outcome might be.
"It's just the little mental lapses we've got to get rid of," Minnesota Wild’s Kyle Brodziak said, adding: "We have a jersey to represent, and we have fans that come out and support us and there's a lot of reasons to keep playing and keep working as hard
as we can."
Brodziak potted the equaliser on a power play during round-two, followed by Marian Gaborik’s 38th of the year and Mikko Koivu levelling it for Minnesota yet again on another added man advantage.
Ruslan Fedotenko made the last period game-winner for New York as Minnesota failed to score any more in the final seven minutes of regulation.
New York Rangers have the next in Winnipeg against Jets on Wednesday while Minnesota Wild host Florida Panthers on Thursday.
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