New York Rangers light up Madison Square Garden with 4-3 OT win over New York Islanders -NHL
There was barely any time to sit down for the 18,000 plus fans in the Madison Square Garden on Sunday, March 11, 2012, as the New York Rangers were up against New York Islanders. Rangers grabbed the win in overtime as Marian Gaborik got the game-winner,
4-3.
Rangers were looking for an easy win being the top ranked team of the Eastern Conference going up against one of the lowest ranked, but Islanders put up a tougher fight than anyone could have expected.
"We talked about how important this one was," Gaborik said. "We had a pretty good game in Chicago (on Friday), but we came up short. Tonight we played a good game."
Coming out of a 4-3 loss against Chicago and two more prior to that, Rangers were happy to finally end their three-game losing streak which had fans suspecting something wrong just before the playoffs are to begin.
"The thing I like most about it is the way we won," Rangers coach, John Tortorella, said. "You don't want to draw it up that way, but the things that we're going through as a team -- even through this game with some of the bounces -- just to keep a hold
of ourselves and stay with it. We needed every last second to finally win the game."
John Tavares scored the 28th of his 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season record followed by the equaliser from Brad Richards on the power play with less than two minutes remaining in the first.
Matt Moulson gave Islanders the lead once again on an added man advantage of their own 7:44 into the second, but Richards were there once again to tie it up for his second of the night with the extra skater.
Andrew MacDonald scored yet against for the Islanders at 19:24, giving his team the lead heading into the final period.
Brian Boyle’s sixth of the season at 3:29 into round-three turned out to allow New York Rangers another life in overtime, followed by Marian Gaborik game-winner in OT with Travis Hamonic out.
Rangers stay at home to host Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, While Islanders also face Washington Capitals in their own arena on the same day.
Tags: