New York Rangers count on timely impressive form of Ryan Callahan & Henrik Lundqvist-NHL News
No matter how crucial remains the respective role of all players to the performance of the New York Rangers, there should not be any reason for the team to disagree that their captain and centre, Ryan Callahan, and netminder, Henrik Lundqvist, are so called
‘heart’ and ‘backbone’ of their wins.
Both players have proved more often to be the frontrunners of their campaigns during all past seasons and this regular season, and this was what noted in Rangers’ game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal of the playoff series, on Thursday April 12,
2012.
No doubt their 4-2 win against the Ottawa Senators had come from goals in the second and third periods, the success was built on the earlier impressive performance of these two players.
Rangers’ forward, Brandon Dubinsky, said of Callahan:
"The guy has been our leader all year long. Sometimes you just expect it. That's just the type of guy that he is. He goes out and prides himself on making sure he's a difference-maker each and every night. The rest of us kind of follow suit. He really set
the tone for us. That's going to be important for him to do throughout this whole playoff."
Callahan ended the game with total seven hits. However, four of those hits had come during earlier part of the game.
He was particularly happy over his performance due to the fact that this was his first playoff game after the miss of postseason last year due to a broken foot.
His performance was complimented with equally impressive show-off from goaltender, Lundqvist, who all in all made 30 saves in front of the net.
It looked at certain stages that Senators will run over Rangers, as the pace of their attack and pressure had been picking up with the passage of every moment.
Had it not been for the rock-solid defence of the team’s net by Lundqvist, the defeat looked to be certain for Rangers.
Senators did not waste much time to unleash their attack on Rangers’ net. They fired more than eight shots in the matter of first nine minutes of the game and all those were successfully turned away by Rangers’ goaltender.
Lundqvist looked to be at his best and this was the reason that Rangers were able to defend their net throughout and won the game at the end.
Rangers’ coach, John Tortorella, has admitted that it was down to the goaltender to have successfully and consistently repulsed the attack from Senators, as they did not look to be in mood of any leniency from very start of the game.
He said:
"I thought Hank was really good when they surged on us and they didn't get anything."
The performance of the duo has helped the team to earn valuable points in the first game of the playoff series.
Tags: