Marian Hossa, the trade-deadline acquisition who made good, fired the winning goal at the 7:10 mark of the first overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins put the New York Rangers out of their collective misery on Sunday afternoon.
The Pens won Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, 3-2, but the score was not indicative of the play. Pittsburgh outshot the Rangers 40-22 and outhit them 41-22 as the Rangers carried a game to overtime that should have been all over by the end of the second period.
OK, at this point we’ll give the Rangers a little credit. They did score two unanswered in the third period as Lauri Korpikoski and Winnipeg’s Nigel Dawes tallied for the Rangers to send the game into overtime, but if it hadn’t ben for the brilliance of Rangers’ goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, this game might have been 6-0 before the Rangers woke up.
Pittsburgh was clearly the better team in this series. When you win a series in five games, you’ve pretty much made a statement. But in this case, the Rangers foubnd a way to comeback and then abandoned the strategy in Game 5.
In order to win Game 4, 3-0, Rangers head coach Tom Renney dressed Colton Orr and, essentially, gooned it up. OK, he didn’t send his guys out to fight, but he did send them out to hit and face-wash and bodycheck and elbow and stab and just wreak general havoc.
The strategy worked as the Rangers outhit Pittsburgh 40-35, outshot Pittsburgh 34-29 and kept the Pens on their heels for 60 minutes.
Yesterday, however, for reasons known only to Renney, Orr didn’t dress (Renney dressed Korpikoski “on a hunch”) and so the Rangers coach left himself with a lineup that failed to include it’s toughest fighter (Orr) and its nastiest pest (the injured Sean Avery). The Rangers can’t skate with the Pens, but they can play tougher. Yesterday, in Pittsburgh they did neither.
As a result, they’re calling the country club for starting times this morning.
Renney had a good chance to come back in this series, even without Avery, but he decided he’d go out a wimp instead of trying to stay in as a goon. Reggie Dunlop would be mighty pissed off today.
In the meantime, how about Penguins GM Ray Shero? He’s the guy who went and got Hossa at the trade deadline and yesterday, that decision paid big dividends. Hossa was terrific yesterday and not only scored the game’s opening goal, but added the winner in OT. He now has five goals in the playoffs and is responsible for eliminating the Rangers in five games.
Well, OK, he and Renney are responsible.
Now, the only question remaining is: Which Pennsylvania team will face the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final?
Pittsburgh is certainly favoured, but if the Flyers goon it up, they can win it.
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• Arron Asham of Portage, a forward with the New Jersey Devils.