Very nice win for the Rangers last night. You almost NEVER hear me complain about officiating, but last night the Rangers got a rough ride in the new Mario-dome. I'm not saying the 6-0 disparity in power plays was unwarranted, but it was difficult to watch.
Rangers take a 1-0 lead halfway through the second, which they are clinging to in the third. Lundqvist is playing brilliantly. With four and a half minutes left the Rangers take yet another penalty, and Pittsburgh goes back on the power play. They tie the game just a few seconds after that power play ended, which was virtually a power play goal.
Then they score again 30 seconds later, just under two minutes left, and Lundqvist is so mad he breaks his stick over the crossbar, and apparently throws it as well. He gets a penalty for one of those transgressions, and it seems all hope is lost. You would like to think the referees could have pretended they did not see what Lundqvist did, or not have reacted so harshly to it, because it's not like that took a scoring chance away from the Penguins or anything...it was done while the Penguins were celebrating and the crowd was going nuts because they just took a 2-1 lead on two goals in like 30 seconds near the end of the game.
But whatever, it's a penalty, deal with it...if he wanted to make sure there was no penalty, he should not have thrown the stick. So 1:53 left, the Rangers are down a man, they send everyone up the ice, and Marc Staal scores the tying goal! Unbelievable! They still have to kill off the rest of the penalty, which they do, then when they get back to even strength in OT Brandon Dubinsky turns a two on one into a two on zero with some nice stickhandling, feeds Ryan Callahan for a tap in, and everyone in the gym is back to crying in their Iron City.
VERY satisfying victory!!!
Sandra
