Four goals from three defensemen last night against Pittsburgh proved to be the winning formula. Michal Roszival had two and Dan Girardi scored one, while Jason Strudwick netted the overtime winner. The only marquee name to figure in the Rangers’ scoring was Scott Gomez, who picked up a helper on the game-winner.
The Rangers began the second down 2-0 from a shorthanded Maxim Talbot goal and an even-strength tally from Sidney Crosby. It only took 49 seconds for Roszival to get the Rangers on the board and he tied it up about three minutes later. Girardi made it 3-2.
Looking poised for the win in regulation after holding the Penguins to one shot through most of the third, Petr Sykora evened it up with five minutes to play. Still, the defense came through again in the extra frame when Struds sealed it with his first of the season. There was a grappling match between Brandon Dubinsky and Jarkko Ruutu in the second period, where few punches were thrown, but Ruutu landed a good left. With the only punch on which to base a decision, it’s hard to pick an outright winner but Ruutu looked to have gotten the better of the scrap. Strudwick looked like he would have rather been the one to fight.
Regardless of how Dubinsky may have fared (he didn’t go down and he wasn’t drubbed), it’s refreshing to see an undercurrent of old-time hockey running through the team. Strudwick can battle. Colton Orr is definitely the team enforcer, whose game has improved and who can throw his left fist as well as his right. Shanahan’s been known to drop the gloves when needed and Avery is obviously scrappy.
This is a tough team willing to make sacrifices for each other and individual players have proven they will stand up for themselves, which is as good (if not better) a deterrent than throwing an as-needed enforcer out onto the ice.
It remains a great surprise that the defense we so maligned at the season’s onset has proven not only to be sound defensively, but able to pick up the offense when needed as against Pittsburgh. In the end, it doesn’t matter from where the goals come, so long as they do. The end certainly justifies the means, and I’m sure no one on the Ranger bench is complaining that the D were the O.
The only result more preferable would have been to not share any points with the Penguins. A goal from a forward could have helped that, but those are sour grapes. Two points are better than one, and better than none.