New York Rangers continue to roll with 3-0 victory over New York Islanders -NHL Update
New York Rangers continued its domination of the Eastern Conference by rolling to a fifth straight victory to secure their first number spot with 48 points over the New York Islanders, 3-0, on Monday night, December 26, 2011, at the sold out Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, United States.
Henrik Lundqvist performed perfect in the net with 28 saves for another shutout in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season. His counterpart in the Islanders net, Evgeni Nabokov, faced 30 shots and managed to block 28, but falling short on two gave them their third straight loss, including their second to the Rangers.
"Our game tonight, I thought we had some really good minutes and we had some brutal minutes", New York Rangers head coach, John Tortorella, said. "When we had some brutal minutes, Hank was outstanding. We have some work to do as a club as far as consistency. We have some guys chipping in, but we have to get some other guys going also".
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, in which both teams were involved in a number of rights and incidents of players roughing each other up, Carl Hagelin added his fifth of the season 5:14 into the second period on an assist by captain, Ryan Callahan.
Hagelin’s opening shot built up much needed momentum for the Rangers who scored two straight in the second to secure the match in their favour with Hagelin adding his second of the night, nearly midway through, while Marian Gaborik fired off his 22nd of the season with less than three minutes to go until the final buzzer sounded.
"There is great depth in this organization", said Hagelin, after his second multi-goal game. "There's a lot of guys out and it shows that the organization is doing a great job preparing guys for this. It's fun".
New York will be looking for another win when they face off against the struggling Washington Capitals on Wednesday while New York Islanders have the next at home against the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
It will be interesting to see if Rangers can maintain the lead they have at the momentum heading into the 2012 NHL Winter Classic.
Tags: