Quick Take: Rangers vs. Bruins

Finally, someone other than Marian Gaborik scored!  Finally, the Rangers played solid hockey! Finally, Christopher Higgins scored a goal!    Everything clicked so well for the Blueshirts last night at Madison Square Garden that they made the Boston Bruins look like, well, the Rangers.

The Rangers dominated the first 55 minutes of this game and it appeared that Henrik Lunqvist was on his way to his second shutout of the season. Boston defenseman, Matt Hunwick, scored a short handed goal at the 14:33 mark and less than a minute and a half later, Blake Wheeler tied it up and it looked as if the same old Rangers were back on the ice. 

With 1:29 left on the clock, Higgins managed to slip one past Bruins goalie Tuuka Rask, for the game winner. "He started to move side-to-side a little bit there and it squeaked in," Higgins said, "Why not try it, you know? Nothing else was going in." It was Higgins fifth goal of the season.

It was nice to see the Rangers score more than two natural goals and it was even nicer that their offensive production came from someone other than Gaborik.  Ales Kotalik, who hasn't scored a goal in two months, and newcomer Erik Christensen, who's been a nice addition so far, chipped in to give Rangers to a 2-0 lead.  Until yesterday, Gaborik had scored 25% of the Rangers goals this season.   

Added Lundqvist, "It would have been really, really tough to not get this win - the way we played, the way we controlled the game, I think. But that's hockey, if you're not playing 60 minutes you can easily lose, even though you played well for 55 minutes."

The Rangers play at the Garden on Wednesday night against the Dallas Stars. 

Quick thought...When will the Rangers rest Lundqvist?  With the Olympics coming up, the man  is going to need some rest so he can come back for the rest of the season.

Random thought...It was nice to hear the frustration on the part of the Bruins fans as they watched their team turn over pucks and get out hustled by the Rangers.  Now they know how we've been feeling!