Rangers 6
Ducks 2
ANAHEIM – Apparently Thursday’s light optional practice, at the end of which Garden CEO Jim Dolan took a rudimentary spin on the ice, didn’t undermine the Rangers, after all.
“Anyone who knows anything knows you can’t keep whipping a horse,” Glen Sather said before his team’s rather stunning 6-2 victory here last night over the Mighty Ducks. “We’re on a brutal trip, we already played four games in six nights and we have three in five coming up.
“Let’s be serious about this.”
The victory was the Rangers’ second straight after having dropped the first two matches of the road trip and pulled the team within five points of the eighth-place Bruins, who have four games in hand-with two head-to-head remaining. The Rangers likely need no fewer 13 wins in the final 18 games in order to stand a chance, though Sather wouldn’t cite a necessary number.
“The goal is to win them all,” he said. “I’m not going to say we have to win three of the next four or four of the next five because that gives guys an excuse to pick their spots.”
Pavel Bure picked his spot last night, and it was top shelf over the left shoulder of Jean Sebastien Giguere on the power play at 2:39 of the third to give the Rangers a 3-2 edge.
Receiving the puck from Petr Nedved, Bure feinted, deked, and then roofed it. It was the second of the night for The Russian Rocket, whose slap from the far left hashmark had given his team a 2-1 edge just 1:29 into the second. The goals, coming in Bure’s third game back after his 31-game absence from the lineup, were his first since Dec. 3.
Eric Lindros had a strong game last night, involved and good with the puck, after an ordinary match in Minnesota Wednesday, as did winger Matt Barnaby. Indeed, it was Barnaby, parked at the left doorstep converting a spinning feed from Lindros at 18:35 of the first that gave the Blueshirts their first goal, just 24 seconds after Sammy Pahlsson had given Anaheim a 1-0 lead.
But if Lindros was strong and if Bure provided the necessary offense for which he is so famous, Mike Dunham was clearly the best Ranger.
Following up Wednesday’s fine effort, the netminder was just outstanding, erasing repeated Ranger second-period errors that created odd-man Mighty Duck rushes. Dunham was quick in his lateral movement and technically sound throughout.
Midway through the third, Dunham got the left pad out to deny Paul Kariya’s breakaway. Bobby Holik, who missed the final 12 minutes of the second period after taking a Niclas Havelid slap shot on the inside of his right leg, and who had scored the 4-2 goal earlier in the period, made it 5-2 at 10:03.