OVERTIME
Rangers 2
Sharks 1
There was a difference in the Rangers last night: a difference in personnel, a difference in approach, a difference in execution and, when it was all over, a difference on the scoreboard, as well.
“Not to say that this is as well as we can play or that we should be satisfied, but our work ethic was very strong and we paid attention to the necessary fundamentals all game,” Bobby Holik said after the Blueshirts ended their five-game losing streak with a 2-1 overtime Garden win over the Sharks. “We can improve on this – when a team is struggling it doesn’t turn around in one night – and if we work at it, we will.
“We just can’t make the mistake of thinking that everything is all right now and that we’ve turned it all around.”
Holik had had withering words for his own team following Saturday’s loss in Toronto, about the Rangers’ failure to grind it out and their penchant for overestimating their ability to win games on talent alone. At a team meeting on Sunday, Mark Messier seconded Holik’s observations about the need to grind and play disciplined, fundamentally sound hockey from start to finish. Which is what the team did last night.
Much of their improvement was owed to Mike Dunham’s presence in nets. A legitimate No. 1, Dunham was sharp and composed in his first game as a Ranger. After allowing a goal on the very first shot he faced, a point-blank Patrick Marleau power-play wrister from alone in front at 4:51, Dunham was perfect on the next 25.
He stayed up, handled the puck well, and gave the Rangers a presence in goal they hadn’t had since Mike Richter’s last performance on Nov. 5, 19 games ago.
“I’ll be honest, before the game I was nervous,” Dunham, playing his first full game since tweaking a groin two weeks ago with the Predators, said. “There’s a big difference between playing at MSG as a visitor and a home player. Growing up in [upstate Johnson City], putting that Ranger sweater on and playing at the Garden, it was very special for me.”
Dunham wasn’t the only new man on the ice. Richard Lintner replaced Dale Purinton (bruised foot) on defense and was solid. Hartford recalls Billy Tibbetts and Gordie Dwyer – Dixon Ward went to the Wolf Pack while Ted Donato was placed on waivers – took the body and brought energy each time they were given a turn.
“They finished their checks; they contributed in a real positive way,” Bryan Trottier said. “As a team I think we had a very, very focused effort.”
Trailing 1-0 deep into the second, the Rangers remained committed to working on the defensive side of the puck and to getting the puck in deep.
Their patient approach paid off when Matt Barnaby completed a neat three-way play with linemates Holik and Eric Lindros to score on a breakaway at 18:58 of the second, the team’s second even-strength goal in 304:18. The Blueshirts pretty well controlled the tempo the rest of the way until Petr Nedved’s spinning backhand winner at 2:25 of OT.
Nedved had missed the net from in close once and had been denied twice previously on glorious chances by Mikka Kiprusoff. No. 93, who had gone minus-eight in the team’s four straight regulation defeats going into the game, raised his arms in relieved jubilation after getting the winner.
“We had to stop the bleeding,” Nedved said. “Hopefully we can start to climb back.”