Rangers Lose Heart Breaker; Down 2 – 0
By Kyle Nuss
Oct 7, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar (11) attempts to move the puck defended by New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal (18) during the third period at Staples Center. The New York Rangers defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
The hockey gods can’t give New York a break can they??
Yes, we will cover that incident in the 3rd period but let’s start from the beginning. The Rangers came out strong scoring the first two goals in the first period. Ryan McDonagh scored the first goal on a wrist shot with an assist from Dominic Moore to give the Rangers 1 – 0 lead. 8 minutes later Mats Zuccarello gets the wrist shot goal with assist from McDonagh and Brassard.
Fast forward to the second period, Jarret Stoll of the LA Kings scored the goal in the 2nd period, making this game look like déjà vu for the Rangers.
Then something different happened
The Rangers scored midway through the second. Martin St. Louis scored on a powerplay goal. A nice slap shot with assist help from Stepan and Kreider. Kings scored 3 minutes later on a powerplay goal with another nice slap shot of the night, scored by Willie Mitchell. Rangers reclaimed their 2 point lead with a wrist shot by Derick Brassard and everything looked really good for the Rangers going into the final period.
Then the 3rd period happened
The Kings have the puck down in the Rangers zone, we see Dwight King come into the crest, where you can see he is heading towards Lundqvist left. You see that even though King gets stuck in between Lundqvist and McDonagh, he at first gets hit by McDonagh and stays in that area, blocking Lundqvist from doing his job. The goal counted and changed the momentum of the entire game. After the game Lundqvist when asked about the missed call
““They got to be consistent with that rule. We, in the second period get called for a penalty and the puck is not even there. They score a goal and I can’t even move.
“It’s extremely frustrating for them to get life like that. After that, it’s a different game. I don’t expect a penalty on the play but they need to blow the whistle. A goalie can’t move when you have a guy like that on top of you. It’s such an important play of that game.”
“[The ref] said the puck had already passed me. I don’t buy it,” Lundqvist said. “That’s a wrist shot, that I’m just going to reach out for and I can’t move. It’s a different game after that. It’s such an important play in the game.” – Pro Hockey Talk
Well the Kings scored the tieing goal 6 minutes later and the game was sent to Overtime where it took 2 overtimes but the Kings won the game on a tip in by Dustin Brown at the 10:26 mark. Listen even though I believe the refs really hurt the Rangers and this game should have been over at the 60 minute mark but the Rangers need to look at that first overtime. The Rangers had so many chances during the first overtime to score and win this game but either overshot the net or bounced puck and both teams just kept missing perfect opportunities.
The New York Rangers played much better this game throughout but you can’t allow a two goal lead to disappear and expect to win the cup. This will be a hard game to come back but this team has been considered dead before and come back, anything can happen.
After a heartbreaking loss in Game 2, the Rangers come back home to the Garden for Game 3 on Monday Night.
You can watch Game 3 on NBCSN and hear on the radio locally on 98.7 ESPN Radio New York.