OVERTIME Rangers 3 Leafs 2 We’d be tempted to say that we don’t know how the Rangers keep winning with a depleted lineup, but it was reasonably easy to see why the Blueshirts were able to bounce back from a two-goal, first-period hole last night to defeat the Maple Leafs in overtime at the Garden, 3-2, and thus move into an eighth-place tie with the Bruins.
And the reason can be encapsulated in two words: work ethic.
From the early moments of the match, coming off Sunday afternoon’s win in Boston, the Rangers were neither sharp nor fresh. Without concussion-victim Ulf Samuelsson, the Blueshirts struggled in their own end. And it wasn’t all that much better in either the neutral or offensive zones. The team was quite obviously out of sync.
“One of the reasons it feels so good to win this one is because we had some adversity and were able to overcome it,” Mike Richter, outstanding yet again, said after Petr Nedved’s power play one-timer with 13.7 seconds remaining on the clock won it. “We understand that everything’s not going to go our way every game, and it didn’t tonight.
“But we gradually got better and took over the game until we were the total aggressors in the third period. It was a very, very good job. It’s an enormously powerful feeling to know going into a game that you can win. And the best part is, we’ve been winning because we’ve been working hard as a team and not trying to beat teams on an individual level.”
The victory extended the Rangers’ unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1), the team’s longest since a 6-0-1 spree from Nov. 26-Dec. 9, 1996. It brought the Rangers back to .500 (28-28-8) for the first time since a Jan. 13 OT victory over the Islanders left them 17-17-7 at the season’s halfway point, brought the Rangers back to break-even after falling six games under (21-27-7) with a Feb. 17 loss to Montreal.
And it brought the Rangers into a tie for the final playoff spot with the Bruins, who have one game in hand. The Rangers lead the 10th place Panthers, who also have a game in hand, by one point. Florida plays in Boston tonight.
“It feels great right now to be where we are after digging such a big hole for ourselves,” said Nedved, who also got last night’s tying goal, driving to the net to get his butt in the way of a Leetch 45-foot drive at 5:55 of the third. “The thing is, we know we have to keep winning. We can’t afford to have a slump.”
The Rangers are winning as a team, that much is obvious. Players are rising to the occasion. For example, Stan Neckar, who stepped in for Samuelsson on Leetch’s right side last night after finding himself a healthy scratch for 25 of the previous 33 games, did fine.
But last night’s victory was keyed by Richter, Leetch and the Nedved-Adam Graves-John MacLean line. On a night when Marc Savard’s line and Manny Malhotra’s line each struggled to gain consistency, the Nedved unit assumed a huge share of the burden. Nedved played 10:07 of the final 25:00, for a total of 25:12. MacLean, who began the winning play with a shrewd move at the left point, played 10:41 after the second intermission, for a total of 24:23. Graves, who went to the net on the winner, played 10:02 in the third and OT, for a total of 24:21. Leetch? A mere 30:35 for the game, almost a night off.
“I don’t like to have to give them so much ice time, but at this stage of the season, we’re playing every game to win,” said John Muckler, whose season-long constructively positive approach to his fragile team is now yielding obvious dividends. “Tonight, things really didn’t go our way, but we stuck together.”
Things sure didn’t go the Rangers’ way early. Mike Johnson and Derek King scored 44 seconds apart in the first. But the Rangers did not wilt. Instead, they came back quickly, Kevin Stevens halving the deficit with a wrist from the slot that beat Glenn Healy at 14:41.
From there, the Rangers simply dominated the battles. From there, the Rangers willed themselves to a victory that produced an explosion of joy on the ice.
But, with Ottawa coming in tomorrow night, little time for self-satisfaction.
“Being where we are right now is fine, but we haven’t accomplished anything, yet,” said MacLean. “We won’t have accomplished anything until we’re in the playoffs.
“And even that won’t be enough.”