Dan Girardi entered last night’s matchup at the Garden hoping to keep Flames star Jerome Iginla off the scoresheet. But it was the defenseman’s work on the offensive end that was the difference in the Rangers’ 2-1 win.
After picking up an assist on Brian Boyle’s first-period goal, Girardi received the puck from Derek Stepan off a faceoff win midway through the second period, and fired a hard slap shot at Calgary goalie Mikka Kiprusoff.
The puck slipped between Kiprusoff’s glove hand and his body, trickling into the back of the net and sending the Rangers on their way to victory before leaving town for a three-game road trip.
“I was just going to try to win it over [to Girardi],” Stepan said. “I just kind of looked at him and said, ‘Hey, let’s try this.’ Once I pulled it back, he had time and space, and walked down and made a great shot.”
“I was just in the middle of the ice, where I should be,” Girardi said. “Fortunately, the seas kind of parted a little bit there . . . I just got a hard shot on net.
“I tried to go low glove, and it just kind of squeaked through.”
After picking up a pair of assists in Saturday’s 5-2 win in Minnesota, Girardi now has the goal and seven assists in his last 10 games, and is second on the team in assists (11) and fourth in points (13).
“I want to contribute anyway that I can,” said Girardi, who was second to Marc Staal with 24:08 of ice time. “If I get some goals and assists, it’s a bonus when I get some, but my main goal is just keeping it out of our net.”
Girardi wasn’t able to keep Iginla at bay all night, as he scored Calgary’s only goal off an odd-man rush early in the second period. But the Rangers defense, including goaltender Martin Biron withstood a late barrage of 15 third-period shots to secure the win.
“It is all about taking time and space away,” Girardi said of dealing with Iginla. “If you give a guy like that time and space, he’s gonna make great plays.
“I think he got a couple of other chances in the third, but he is a great player, so it’s going to be hard to keep him off the score sheet and off the chance sheet, but I think we did a pretty good job against him, and Marty bailed us out when he had to.”