The battle was joined, that was obvious from the first minute. But it took a little more time, until the game was 1:39 away from overtime, in fact, to determine the series was joined as well.
There is no question now. The Black-and-Blueshirts are back in business following a rousing 3-2, Game 3 victory over the Capitals at the Garden yesterday, when Brandon Dubinsky emerged from a traffic jam on the left wing wall, took the puck to the net and all but willed it in at 18:31 of the third period to pull his team within 2-1 in the series that continues on Broadway Wednesday night.
“Bang, bang, it was in the net,” said Dubinsky, who got the goal on a four-on-four situation when his shot rolled off defenseman’s Karl Alzner’s shoulder, bounced, and then banged off a diving Alex Ovechkin’s stick. “I was trying to get away from the D, I was trying to bring pucks to the net and bang something in there, especially with how much time was left in the game.
“We’re back in the series.”
They’re back in the series following 60 minutes of grinding hockey, and no one should be the slightest bit surprised after watching this group for 85 games that the Rangers were able to withstand blowing a pair of one-goal leads — the first with a minute to go in the second period, the second with just 5:12 to go in the match — and nevertheless persevere.
“This shows that we’ve got a lot of guts, that we’re a gutsy group of guys that won’t give up or give in,” said Chris Drury, massive at the faceoff dots in going 15-3 in the defensive zone and 15-4 overall. “I won’t lie, when they tied it with five minutes to go, there was a little bit of a letdown. We’re not robots, but we got right back to it.”
They got right back to it as they had gotten right to it off the opening draw, finishing checks, blocking shots — Dan Girardi doesn’t really need both kidneys, does he? — and creating as much traffic as possible in front of Michal Neuvirth, the goaltender who did not show up to face questions afterward, though he sure hadn’t found that an imposition after winning each of the first two games.
Dubinsky led the parade of 41 Rangers’ hits with seven, moved to the middle first between Marian Gaborik and Ruslan Fedotenko and then between Gaborik and Vinny Prospal, after a pair of unsatisfactory matches in DC.
“Dubi was a monster,” said Henrik Lundqvist, outstanding in making 23 saves and faultless on the two goals. “That’s just a Dubi goal at its best. It was such a great play.
“We talked going into the game that it was going to be a big play like that.”
The Rangers needed that big play after Mike Knuble tied the score 2-2 with a slam-dunk power-play goal at 14:48. That came after Prospal had slammed home a rebound of a Marc Staal drive at 8:01 of the third. The Rangers had taken a 1-0 lead at 5:30 of the second on an Erik Christensen impossible angle right corner whippet that ended the team’s scoreless streak at 121:58 before Ovechkin tied it at 19:00 of the period.
“This is how we play; this is how we played all year,” Prospal said. “This is the mark of our team — we don’t give up.”
The battle has been joined. The series has been joined. The Black-and-Blueshirts are back in business.