BATTLING BACK
Blueshirts overcome sloppy start to win in SO
RANGERS 4 CANUCKS 3
Here is one message the Rangers are sending to themselves, with a hint of truth and a hint of hyperbole:
“Sometimes good teams find ways to win when they don’t play their best,” coach Alain Vigneault said after his team eked out a 4-3 shootout victory over the Canucks on Sunday afternoon at the Garden.
So now it’s eight wins in a row at home for the Rangers (13-9-2), winners of 10-of-12 overall, and some real confidence is manifesting itself on the ice in the fact that no in-game falter creates a snowball of disaster. Because there was a ton of faltering against the Canucks (11-9-4), who dominated the first period and most of the second, but saw leads of 2-0 and 3-2 disappear before falling to Jimmy Vesey’s winner in the seventh round of the shootout.
“I think it was a tough game, a little bit sloppy at times,” said Vesey, who had tied the game 3-3 at 5:05 of the third period with a nifty backhand finish over goalie Jacob Markstrom’s glove after re- ceiving a great spinning pass from Rick Nash. It was a rare skill play on a night when the ice was far from ideal.
“Pucks were bouncing, guys were battling pucks,” Vesey said. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t our best game. But we stuck with it and found a way to win. I think that’s a sign of how things are going for us. And definitely a sign of a good team.”
One thing that has unquestionably been good over this whole stretch is goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who made his 12th straight start and finally allowed an evenstrength goal for the first time in three games when Loui Eriksson beat him five-hole at 7:54 of the first, giving Vancouver a 1-0 lead. But Lundqvist reverted to his splendid form, as he came in having stopped 70 straight evenstrength shots and 105-of-106 in the previous four games.
“Everybody makes plays that matter,” Lundqvist said after making 29 saves. “You can’t take a shift off, and that’s the same for me.”
Lundqvist stopped five-of-seven Canucks shooters in the skills competition, and he needed the game saved first when Kevin Shattenkirk scored in the third round and then Nash in the fifth — neither toying with the ice and opting for wrist shots. That was a sign for Vesey, who came down with the game on his stick and picked the top corner for the victory.
“I don’t think the ice conditions are very good at that point of the game,” Vesey said. “I just tried once again to get it over his glove.”
The Canucks’ lead had gone to 2-0 at 7:21 of the second when
Jake Virtanen buried an open shot after he won a wall battle with three Rangers — Marc Staal, Steven Kampfer and David Desharnais. But the Blueshirts gained a semblance of momentum when Jesper Fast got his fourth goal (third in the past three games) at 17:40, to make it 2-1 going into the third.
Michael Grabner tied it 2-2 just 19 seconds into the third when Markstrom whiffed on a shot off the wall, but Sam Gagner gave Vancouver a 3-2 lead just 41 seconds later. Vesey got the game-tying goal, and the wild, back-andforth, three-on-three overtime didn’t result in a goal, leaving it open for him to be the hero in the shootout.
It wasn’t pretty, but once again, it was enough.
“The league is so competitive that if you start to think you’re that good — you can forget about yourself, but don’t fool yourself,” Lundqvist said. “You have to earn it every night.”
That is the more concrete message inside the locker room, and a message that resonates whether they’re a good team or not.
“Take the two points,” Vigneault said sternly, “and not say a word.”