Rangers 2 Canadiens 2
MONTREAL – Now that we know they can score, another question remains: Will the Rangers ever win again?
The Rangers played an aggressive, solid game last night at the Molson Centre, but still came away with just one point after a 2-2 tie against the lowly Canadiens.
“It’s a progression,” John Muckler said after he saw his team snap its scoring drought, as well as its four-game losing streak. “I wish it didn’t have to be, but you need games like this to get better. It makes you a better team.”
The Rangers still have quite a bit of work to do. After an astounding two hours, 53 minutes and 33 seconds without a goal, their captain, Brian Leetch scored at 19:02 of the first period.
“That was huge,” Theo Fleury said. “We felt like we’ve been carrying a piano on our backs the last three games and it fell off.”
“I was surprised it went in,” Leetch said. “I was off angle a little bit and didn’t see an opening. But sometimes you need something like that to happen.”
The Blueshirts had failed to score since the now-injured Valeri Kamensky put one in during their 2-1 loss against San Jose Oct. 19 at the Garden. Still, with all of the opportunities the team had, it is amazing it scored only twice.
“That’s just the way things are going right now,” Fleury said. “But with the way we’re playing, that’s bound to change.”
Leading that change is Leetch, who played his strongest match of the year last night. He took seven shots and added an assist. Only the Rangers’ rotten luck and the excellent goaltending of Montreal’s Jeff Hackett – who, along with the Rangers’ Mike Richter, was very good in goal – kept them from winning.
As has often been the case over the past few years, the Rangers found a way not to get two points. But they almost did win it near the end of the extra session, when Hackett kept his team in the game. Fleury and Petr Nedved nearly combined for a goal, but like so many times last night, they just missed. Nedved’s shot went off the net.
“I started to put my hands up,” Leetch said of his reaction. “I thought it went in.”
But of course, these are the Rangers, so it did not. The team, however, which was confident coming out of practice this past week, was even more so after last night’s performance.
“We moved the puck well and skated well,” said Leetch of his team, which had 35 shots on goal. “But we needed to win. This is better than losing and we have to keep playing like this. We still haven’t won a game in a while [since Oct. 17 against Atlanta]. You can take a step back in a hurry.”
Early on, it looked as if the Rangers might be in for yet another long night. The Habs took a 1-0 lead at 6:22 in the first period when Saku Koivu fed a perfect pass to Martin Rucinsky on a power play.
But they battled back to take the lead after Leetch tied the game off a won faceoff by Tim Taylor. Mike Knuble followed with a score at 17:07 of the second period off a nice pass from Leetch.
“When we came back like that, it was good to see,” Fleury said. “Especially with the way things have been going. It’s unbelievable. But that’s just the way things are going right now, we can’t catch a break.”
Things reverted to form in the third. Thirty seconds into the period, Koivu got a long shot past Richter. The score again came on a power play set up by a Todd Harvey penalty. The Rangers looked weak during the remainder of regulation, but showed spark again in overtime.
“We had tough luck around the net,” Muckler said. “We had numerous chances and they’re gonna start going in. This has just been a span we are going through. Things like [the scoring drought] teaches a team to come together. I have no doubt the team will come around.”
Still, a win would be nice.