Recapping the Rangers/Penguins 3/20/11

What a hard fought, fun game it was to watch today as a New York Rangers fan.

First off, my apologies for not providing a pre-game post like normal. Today is my final day of spring break, and I wanted to enjoy the sleep.

Defense was solid during the first half of the game by the Rangers, allowing one goal on a miscommunication between Girardi and Eminger. Jordin Staal broke free from the pack and tied the game after Anisimov's tip-in in front of the net earlier. The second period was not very eventful, for these teams were saving it all for the third.

The drama began with Matt Cooke being, well, his normal dirty self by throwing an elbow to the head of Ryan McDonagh. Cooke received a five-minute game-misconduct penalty. During that penalty kill,  Chris Kunitz managed to break free short-handed, and rifled it by Lundqvist. Following that, Matt Niskanen found himself taking a high sticking penalty after hitting soon-to-be captain Ryan Callahan on the bridge of the nose, bloodying him. Niskanen received a four-minute double minor for this event.

Marian Gaborik managed to find the back of the net for the Rangers after a hard-fought battle in-front of Marc-Andre Fleury. And promptly eleven seconds later, Ryan Callahan came in on a bad angle and sneaked one by the shoulder of Fleury, top shelf where momma hides the cookies to take the lead back.

Later on in the period, Ryan McDonagh managed to draw a tripping call to himself. The Rangers managed to kill of the penalty, and cleared it perfectly to when McDonagh was getting out of the box. McDonagh missed on the breakaway, but rookie Derek Stepan followed up and tucked it home for McDonagh.

The game was decided by the score of 5-2 coming off of a Brandon Dubinsky empty-net goal. Lundqvist stopped 38 of 40 shots faced, despite some neck soreness suffered by a collision during the Montreal game.

As for Matt Cooke, my guess will be he will be suspended, but not for very long. I took the liberty of spinning the "Wheel of Justice" for the NHL (at http://www.nhlwheelofjustice.com/) and it was determined that Cooke's play is a "hockey play". However, since Matt Cooke is a repeat offender, I see 1-3 games being missed by him, just on his track record.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!