Let`s Go Rangers!

Rangers lead the series 3-1



NEW YORK -- Martin St. Louis put New York within one win of the Stanley Cup finals, scoring 6:02 into overtime to give the Rangers a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday night.

A loose puck came to St. Louis, the Rangers' inspirational postseason leader, alone in the right circle and he fired a snap shot over goalie Dustin Tokarski's shoulder.

The Rangers, who lead the series 3-1, were forced to overtime for the second straight game despite holding a pair of one-goal leads. New York lost Game 3 at home.

Carl Hagelin put the Rangers in front with a short-handed goal in the first period, and Derick Brassard made it 2-1 in the second. Hagelin also assisted on St. Louis' goal.

Francis Bouillon tied it in the second, and fellow defenseman P.K. Subban made it 2-2 in the third with a power-play goal. David Desharnais assisted on both for Montreal.

i was on the Rangers and the Over, why don't you make anymore plays? I lost money on that Blue Jay play, but i tail and do okay.

Originally Posted by erocking

i was on the Rangers and the Over, why don't you make anymore plays? I lost money on that Blue Jay play, but i tail and do okay.

I`m posting in the other forum.....I have won 9 NHL plays in a row.....Going for 10 in a row tonight.

Rangers lead the series 3-2


MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens are not ready to concede the Eastern Conference title to the New York Rangers.

Rene Bourque scored three goals and the Canadiens chased star goalie Henrik Lundqvist from the game as they defeated the Rangers 7-4 on Tuesday to stave off elimination.

Brian Stubits
Canadiens show urgency, Rangers don't; goalies shaky

The Rangers, who lead the best-of-7 series 3-2, will have another chance to earn a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in Game 6 on Thursday night in New York.

"I think you're starting to see us playing Montreal Canadiens hockey," Montreal forward Max Pacioretty said. "I don't think you've really seen it in this series just yet.

"It was great to see a little taste of it. I think we still have more. I think we still have little things to work on. And it should be a fun one going back there."

Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec and Pacioretty also scored for Montreal, which outshot the Rangers 28-27.

Derek Stepan, playing with a guard on his helmet to protect a broken jaw suffered from a Brandon Prust hit in Game 3, returned to the lineup to score twice for the Rangers. Chris Kreider had a goal and three assists and Rick Nash also scored.

"It was just a strange game," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "It was a different game from what we've seen so far in the series, but now we're going home."

It was the third time in these playoffs that the Canadiens have faced elimination.

As they did after falling behind 3-2 to Boston in the conference semifinals, they came up with their best hockey to stay alive.

Pacioretty feels that being under pressure helps his team focus.

"There's a lot of distractions and noise in this city and I think that when we let it affect us and we don't worry about ourselves and what we can control we get away from our game a bit," he said.

"Now that we're in desperation mode and our backs are against the wall, we're just worrying about what we can control.

"When we get four lines buzzing like that and play the way we're capable of we have a lot of success. Hopefully we can do that next game."

The Rangers weren't facing the same desperation and spent the game trying to play catch-up. Going 1 for 7 on the power play didn't help.

Neither did getting an ordinary game from the often extraordinary Lundqvist.

He let in four goals on only 19 shots before he was pulled at 8:58 of the second period in favor of Cam Talbot.

"I pulled him because I thought at that time we needed a little momentum shift, and I thought it might catch everybody's attention," Vigneault said. "It did for a while. Obviously it didn't work out."

Montreal's Dustin Tokarski, starting a fourth game since Carey Price was injured in the series opener, allowed four on his first 14 shots, but then made some big saves in the third to preserve the win.

It prompted a bold observation from Bourque.

"Everybody talks about how [Lundqvist] is a great goalie: Has he been better than [Tokarski] this series?" Bourque asked. "I don't think so.

"[Tokarski] made some big saves for us, too. We had a couple bad bounces but our power play was the difference. We got some traction, got a couple goals in tight."

Bourque's second goal proved to be the winner and came just after the Rangers came back to tie the game at 4-4 in the second period.

"Everybody was ready for this game," Bourque said. "We knew the situation.

"It was just a see-saw battle back and forth. [Dale] Weise made a great play to me. I called for the puck and somehow it got through. It was nice to get in there."

Bourque has been a different player in the postseason than he was while scoring only nine goals in 63 games in the regular season.

"It's easy to sit back and get down on yourself after giving up that lead, but coming out right away and putting that in the top corner, that's the difference in the game," Pacioretty said. "It was a huge boost for us."

At 10:41 of the third, Rangers defenseman John Moore was given a major penalty and was ejected for a blindside, open ice hit on Dale Weise that was similar to Prust's hit on Stepan.

Weise was wobbly when he got up and went for treatment, but returned to the bench late in the period.

The NHL player safety department announced that Moore will have a hearing on Wednesday to see if further discipline is in order.

"The league will do what it has to do," Vigneault said of the hit. "John is not the type of person who would try to hurt someone, but it was a late hit."

There was no mention of Bourque, who took a slashing major at the end of the game.

It was a night of strange bounces and spotty goaltending, even if New York's best chance of the game had Carl Hagelin's shot stopped by the end of Tokarski's stick midway through the first period.

The Rangers did a good job of canceling the initial rush Montreal gets from its pregame buildup in winning the opening two games of the series, but Ginette Reno's O Canada fired up the crowd and the team.

Only 22 seconds in, Kreider was sent off for tripping and the Canadiens converted when Galchenyuk tipped in P.K. Subban's point shot from the edge of the crease at 1:48.

Stepan made it 1-1 at 10:44 of the first on a 30-foot shot off a rush that fooled Tokarski. Plekanec restored the lead with a similar goal at 12:24 as he swiped the puck between two defenders and had it beat Lundqvist.

The second period had plenty of scoring.

Pacioretty got it started on a nice pass from Brendan Gallagher at 3:44 and Bourque gave Montreal a three-goal lead when he spun and scored from close range.

That chased Lundqvist.

Nash whipped a puck at the Montreal net and had it go in off defenseman Andrei Markov's skate 9:48, Stepan got his second in a mass scramble in front of Tokarski at 12:06.

Kreider tied it on a power play at 14:12 on a tic-tac-toe play after Subban lost his stick.

The Bell Centre went quiet, but got loud again when Bourque got his second at 15:10 as he beat Talbot from 10 feet.

Several hats were thrown on the ice after Weise sent Bourque in alone to get his third of the game 6:33 into the third period.

Desharnais scored into an empty net during a New York power play at 15:43.

There was some nastiness at the end between New York's Derek Dorsett and Montreal's Mike Weaver.

Asked if he had been head-butted, Weaver said: "Ah, so many things happened I don't really know. I was more concentrating on where the puck was. I wasn't really worried about what he was doing."

The Canadiens scored seven goals in a playoff game for the first time since beating the Hartford Whalers 7-4 on April 27, 1992.

Rangers win the series 4-2


NEW YORK -- Dominic Moore scored in the second period, Henrik Lundqvist bounced back from his worst performance in the playoffs and the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 on Thursday night to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Rangers are in the championship round for the first time since winning it all in 1994. To celebrate, the Empire State Building was immediately lit up in Rangers colors.

Brian Stubits
Rangers dominate Game 6, but barely squeak through

Lundqvist and the Rangers shook off a 7-4 road loss Tuesday night to take out the Canadiens on home ice in Game 6.

Lundqvist needed to make only 18 saves to tie the team record for playoff shutouts with nine. He was pulled after allowing four goals in less than two periods Tuesday.

"It feels so unbelievable," Lundqvist said. "The way we responded here, I think we played one of our best periods of the whole playoffs in the third period, when it mattered the most. You just have to get fired up and go out and play. The guys did such a great job. It was not hard."

Lundqvist had been 0-5 since 2009 in non-Game 7 clinching games. He leaped several times in his crease with his hands raised as streamers were fired off from the rafters.

The Rangers don't have a captain, so assistants Brad Richards, Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, were called to accept the Prince of Wales Trophy. The whole team joined them and posed for a full squad photo while the Garden rocked with yells of "We Want The Cup!"

Montreal's Dustin Tokarski, who replaced injured No. 1 goalie Carey Price after Game 1, was solid in making 31 saves.

The Stanley Cup Final will begin Wednesday at either Chicago or Los Angeles, which leads the Western finals 3-2.

Montreal made one final push after Tokarski was pulled for an extra skater with 1:53 left. Lundqvist held off the Canadiens as fans chanted "Hen-rik! Hen-rik!"

The Rangers broke the deadlock late in the second period after some good grinding work in the left corner by rugged forward Derek Dorsett. The puck came free to defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who sent it behind the net to Brian Boyle in the right corner. Boyle spotted Moore alone in the crease and fed a crisp pass for a hard shot that got through Tokarski with 1:53 left.

Moore punctuated his third goal of the playoffs with an emphatic fist pump and yell.

Montreal came right back and drew its second power play of the night when Brad Richards was forced to hook Thomas Vanek as the struggling forward was making a strong drive in front from behind the net with 12.9 seconds remaining in the period.

The Canadiens failed on their two power plays and finished 2 for 23 in the series.

Tokarski kept his club in it early in the third when the Rangers pushed for an insurance goal. Tokarski did splits and lunges to deny Derick Brassard on the doorstep after New York moved the puck out from behind the net.

Vanek, who hasn't scored in seven games, nearly gave the Canadiens the lead with 4:45 to go in the second when he put a shot on net while Montreal had a mini 2-on-0 in front. Lundqvist made a desperate rolling move onto his back and got a piece of the puck with a swipe of his blocker, deflecting it away from the top of the net.

Montreal got back forward Brandon Prust after he served a two-game suspension for a late hit in Game 3 that broke Derek Stepan's jaw. But Dale Weise sat out two nights after he was wobbled by a hit to the head from John Moore that cost the Rangers defenseman a two-game suspension that will carry into the Cup finals opener.

Despite being outshot 11-5 in the scoreless first period, the Canadiens had the most dangerous chances and controlled play in the New York end in the closing minutes of the frame.

The Rangers came out quickly and built a 6-0 edge in shots that grew to 11-1, before Montreal began pressuring Lundqvist. For several stretches, the Canadiens successfully cycled the puck inside the New York edge and drew nervous groans and sighs from the crowd each time they put it in on net. Alex Galchenyuk had the best shot, a backhander that Lundqvist turned aside with 5:10 remaining.

New York did little with the first power play, a goalie interference call against Canadiens captain Brian Gionta 4:50 in, and then killed an interference call on Staal that lasted through the first minute of the second period.