Results tagged “martinrucinsky”

The Rangers escaped from Florida last night with a point and they should be happy they even got that. They wouldn’t have without the outstanding goaltending of Kevin Weekes who faced 45 shots and made several big saves before being unable to stop Olli Jokinen in the shootout.

Kevin Weekes had not started in goal since the middle of January and figured to be rusty last night, but the Rangers picked up their defense and didn’t allow an Islander shot in the first eleven minutes of their 5-2 victory. With the upcoming Olympic Break, the Rangers will need to rely on Weekes more to get through the compressed schedule in March and April.

For most of the game, the Rangers had the lead thanks to Jaromir Jagr’s scoring prowess and Henrik Lundqvist’s brilliance in goal. So, when Martin Rucinsky scored to give New York a two-goal lead with just over eleven minutes to play, it seemed like the game was in the bag. Maybe that’s what the Rangers felt, because Philadelphia stormed back and eventually won the game 3-2 in overtime.

The Rangers needed a game like this. After a lackluster effort on Tuesday and with a game against first-place Philadelphia on Monday, the Rangers needed to rebuild their confidence. They did so and more, destroying Pittsburgh 7-1 in a nationally televised game.

After suffering a brutal loss to the Capitals on Saturday, the Rangers bounced back on Monday night beating the Minnesota Wild 3-1 at the Garden. Petr Prucha scored twice on the power play and looks very comfortable with his promotion to the top line. Martin Rucinsky playing in his second game since coming back from a knee injury had three assists while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 22 shots.

If the Rangers are going to be successful this season they are going to have to stop taking so many penalties. Thursday night the Rangers committed eleven penalties including two that put them in five on three situations in their 4-3 loss to Montreal.