Rangers Take Back The Advantage

I stopped drinking long ago. Not that I was ever much of a drinker anyway. If we get more Ranger playoff games like Monday night, I may need to hit that bottle again!

A slow-starting game that was rather dull turned fast midway through the 2nd period, and led by the scoring of Brian Boyle and the great goaltanding of likely Vezina trophy winner Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers shut out the Ottawa Senators to take game 3 of the Eastern quarterfinals 1-0.

The game started to turn at the halfway mark of the 2nd when the Rangers got their forcheck going and peppered Sens goalie Craig Anderson. However, the game remained scoreless until a freak puck bounce off the backboard wound up on the stick of Red Hot Brian Boyle, and he lifted a sweet backhand past a surprised Anderson, tallying the only goal of the night at 7.35 of the final frame.

However the action and superb goaltending of King Henry didn't end. Lundqvist made the save of the night, robbing former Coyote Kyle Turris with under 2 minutes left. Turris was stopped point-blank on back to back attempts, the 2nd was goalie theivery at it's finest.

The Rangers played without suspended winger Karl Haglin, who has been sent to the couch for 3 games. Young hot shot Chris Kreider made his NHL debut and was quiet even though he got the start on the top line with Brad Richards and Marion Gaborik.

Before robbing Turris of the tying goal, Ottawa Goalie Anderson kept his team within 1, stopping a breakaway by just-out-of-the-sin-bin Ryan Callahan, who got called for a trip. The captain skated in all alone after a nifty dish from Boyle, but Anderson made a great glove save.

Lundqvist finished with 39 saves. Boyle, who tallied only 11 times during the season, scored a goal for the 3rd straight game. For King Henry, the shutout was his 4th in the playoffs. The Sens played without their Captain, Daniel Alfredsson, who was concussed on the hit by Haglin.

Game 4 of this best of 7 series will be back in Ottawa Wednesday night. The Senators haven't won a home playoff game since 2007 during their run to the Cup finals.