Drury’s Hat Trick Leads Rangers to Victory

The big story in the Rangers 5-2 victory over Tampa Bay was the return of Marek Malik. He received a hero’s welcome, with the crowd drowning out the National Anthem with chants of ‘Marek! Marek!’ Tears streamed down his face, and the Garden faithful spent the game rooting for the Lightning to win because of their love for the former Ranger legend. Oops, that was Eddie Giacomin’s return. Malik was, of course, booed every time he touched the puck.

The real story was the power play. But first things first. Tampa Bay didn’t score while the Rangers were on the man advantage. And there was no third period meltdown. After dropping to 29^th in the league, the Blueshirts scored three power play goals. They were less tentative, and quick to make decisions with the puck. On the first two power play goals, they were breaking into the zone, making quick, smart passes and scored before they had to set things up. They got the monkey off their back right off the bat. In the first period, Michal Rozsival (no nightmares for him in this game, two assists) took a hit while shuffling the puck up to Nikolai Zherdev (two assists) in the Rangers zone. Zherdev took the puck all the way into the offensive zone, with a nifty move or two, and found a trailing Ryan Callahan, who banged it home for a 1-0 lead.

And then the Chris Drury show started. While the Rangers were killing a penalty, he stole the puck at the Tampa Bay blue line, drove to the net, distracted Mike Smith by dangling his shiny keys in the air and put the puck in the net. It was the first shorthanded goal for the Rangers all year. So that’s what it feels like. In the third, Drury scored his second goal, on the power play, when Scott Gomez made a nice backhanded pass to him and he slapped it home. And he completed the trifecta with a minute left in the game, scoring on a five on three. Whenever he scores, the Rangers win (ok, he’s only scored in two games). He’s now tied for the team lead in goals, though, with five, along with Callahan, Zherdev, Aaron Voros and Markus Naslund.

The Blueshirts did a better job of forechecking and attacking the net last night. Their fourth goal was created when Zherdev and Voros went into the corner to forecheck and battled for the puck. Zherdev came away with it, whipped it out to Marc Staal, who ripped a slap shot past Smith for his first goal of the season. Voros had his best game in weeks. He stood in front of the net all game long, getting slashed and shoved by Smith and taking the goalie off his game. Things finally boiled over in the third, when Smith whacked him a few more times and punched Voros in the face. A fight actually broke out. I love it when goalie’s fight. Smith ended up with nine minutes in penalties, and the game ended with about 12 Lightning players sitting in the penalty box. Voros needs to do that every game. Make a nuisance of himself in front of the crease. He also had a rematch with Ryan Malone in the first period. Two fights, one assist and a strong, physical game. Not bad.

Henrik Lundqvist was stellar in goal for the Rangers. At times in the game, Tampa Bay put a lot of pressure on New York, and ended up with a breakaway or a man all alone in front with the puck. But the King bailed out his teammates again with a handful of spectacular saves. The first half of the game, the Betts/Sjostrom/Orr line did a good job of blanketing the Lecavalier/St. Louis/Prospal line. But after that, the Lightning’s top line had chance after chance and Lundqvist, for the most part, turned them away.

It doesn’t matter what country they’re playing in, Tampa Bay still can’t beat the Rangers. Next game: Saturday night in DC.

Bag-O’-Knuckles-O-Meter

Aaron Voros: 4

Colton Orr: 3

Paul Mara: 2

Ryan Callahan: 1

Brandon Dubinsky: 1

Marc Staal: 1