It was a game replete with chaos during which odd bounces were every bit as determinative as odd-man rushes, a night on Broadway in which beauty as beheld by the Rangers wasn’t going to be defined by restoration of an identity, but only by a final score in their favor.
And when this season’s final Battle of New York had ended, when Marian Gaborik beat Evgeni Nabokov at 4:54 of overtime to give the Rangers a 4-3 victory on the Rangers’ third power play goal of the night — no lie — the Longest Week had ended and the conference lead over the surging Penguins had been restored to four points with 14 games to go.
“It wasn’t quite do-or-die, but we played with desperation,” said Brian Boyle, who was given the assignment to center a brand new first power-play unit between Gaborik and Mats Zuccarello, back from nearly five months of being marooned with the AHL Whale and playing his role to perfection, creating one-man traffic jam in front throughout. “A lot of crazy things happened in this game, a lot of bad bounces, but we never panicked and we just kept coming at them.”
Brad Richards, who was on the point for 8:21 of the 9:17 the Rangers were on the power play, scored twice with the man advantage in the victory that snapped the team’s first three-game regulation losing streak of the season. The goals were the first on the man advantage for Richards since Dec. 11, a span of 40 games.
When Richards, who had been struggling to make a play on the power play that entered 0-for-9 in the Rangers’ previous four matches and 1-for-18 in the previous eight, was asked what was different, the alternate captain did not have to search for words.
“I scored a couple of goals,” he said. “That’s different.”
After nearly 60 games apart, Richards has been reunited with Gaborik at even-strength with Hagelin on the other side. That’s different, too. And with Ryan Callahan’s bruised right foot preventing him from playing following three games trying it at less than full strength, Derek Stepan centered Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov.
The Rangers dominated for most of the night, coming in waves at the Islanders, winning most of the battles, controlling play below the hash marks.
But at the top of the stretch of a season in which so much has bounced the right way, the puck has begun to bounce the wrong way.
There was a deflected shot off a back stanchion that landed to Henrik Lundqvist’s right when he thought it would glance to his left. There was a deflected pass in the offensive zone that became a breakaway out of the box at the other end on a play that was probably offside.
Thus, even with the shots 24-12 after two for the Rangers, the score was 3-2 the other way.
“It was frustrating after two periods, no question,” said The King, who has allowed three or more goals in five straight after going the previous 12 without yielding more than two. “But it just made me more determined for the third, and the same for the team.”
Into OT they went after Boyle’s even-strength deflection in front tied it at 3:29 of the third. Onto the four-on-three power play they went when Frans Nielsen hooked Hagelin at 2:58 of OT.
Onto the ice went the four-man power-play unit featuring Stepan, Zuccarello, Richards and Gaborik. On they stayed until Gaborik finally wristed one up top, blocker side.
“We can’t let the little bumps affect our psyche,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said.
Or the breaks undo their conference lead.