The New York Rangers scored five goals in a devastating first period to lay the foundations for a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
The Rangers piled on three goals in a 67-second blitz to register their highest first period in any NHL game since 1999 and boost their chances of making the playoffs. Artem Anisimov and defenseman Dan Girardi both scored early goals for the Rangers, but it was the triple strike from Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik and Brian Boyle that effectively sealed the result.
“We knew we had to have a quick start,” New York’s Brandon Dubinsky told reporters. “It was a playoff-like atmosphere. We buried them early on and still had opportunities to build on our lead.”
Photo: AFP
Callahan netted his 12th goal in 20 games, while Gaborik and Boyle both scored their 21st of the season as the Rangers opened up a 5-1 lead they never surrendered.
The win kept New York (38-30-4) in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, five points behind Montreal (39-26-7). It was the Rangers’ fifth win from their last six games and their first in four clashes this season against their Original Six rivals.
Both teams set the tone for what was always expected to be a feisty encounter when Travis Moen and Brandon Prust were penalized for trading punches in the first second of the game.
The Canadiens, who got an early goal from All-Star P.K. Subban, briefly threatened to stage a comeback when defenseman James Wisniewski scored the only goal of the second period and Brian Gionta netted early in the third to cut the margin to 5-3 that set local fans’ pulses racing. New York, however, ended the Canadiens’ hopes of a comeback with a late goal from Vinny Prospal.
New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist saved 22 shots to register his 30th win of the season for the sixth successive year.
“If you look at the goals, there were breakdowns and they capitalized on it,” Montreal coach Jacques Martin said. “We turned pucks over, we weren’t direct enough in our game especially in the first period and they took advantage of it.”
In other NHL play, it was:
‧ Coyotes 3, Canucks 1
‧ Capitals 3, Devils 0
‧ Hurricanes 3, Islanders 2, OT
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later