RANGERS TIE SERIES -- AMIRANTE RETURNS TO FUEL THE FANS

RANGERS TIE SERIES -- AMIRANTE RETURNS TO FUEL THE FANS

By: Matthew Blittner

"Ladies and Gentlemen, here to sing Oh Canada and the Star-Spangled Banner, please welcome back  a fan favorite since 1980, JOHN AMIRANTE!"

Roughly 30 hours before the puck was scheduled to drop for Game 4, word leaked out over the internet that the Rangers had decided to bring their iconic National Anthem singer John Amirante back from a two-year team imposed hiatus.

As word spread through the City of New York, many fans became more excited about Amirante's imminent return rather than for the actual game.

So, when it came time for the fans to rise and remove their caps for the singing of both National Anthems, there was a palpable electricity in the air of Madison Square Garden.

Many likely wondered if the internet rumors were indeed true.

Well, THEY WERE!

As the Public Address Announcer was introducing Amirante, the crowd of 19,000 plus, was whipping itself into a frenzy fit for a returning hero, or a king. When it became clear that the most iconic Anthem Singer in Garden history was indeed walking out onto the ice, the fans were ready to raise the roof. A frenzied crowd for the rendition of Oh Canada, became a max energy blue and white sea of towels and jerseys as the fans raised their team giveaway rally towels in support of Amirante's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. 

As he hit the climax of the song, it was evident that the construction workers that renovated the Garden a few years ago, had done an incredible job. The reverberation of sound within the building was so intense that you could not hear anything other than the screaming of the fans, which mirrored the intensity of a sonic boom.

After Amirante completed the National Anthem and walked off the ice to thunderous applause,  the crowd refused to yield as the players took the ice. 

The Blueshirts, feeding off their fans rabid energy, came out flying and just 1:20 into the game, Michael Grabner had himself a breakaway opportunity. He soared in on Craig Anderson, only to be stopped by a big glove save.

A continuous trend for these Rangers over the course of the season was their habit of getting outshot, yet still winning games. Many people wondered what this team could do if they were to ever win the shots battle. The answer, they dominated from opening whistle to the final horn. Approximately 10 minutes after Grabner's breakaway, Kevin Hayes registered a 2-on-1 shot attempt on Anderson, only to be denied by Craig's left pad.

What a sight it was to see. The Rangers were controlling the tempo and pace of the game masterfully, and had built up an 8-4 shots advantage by the 13:51 mark of the first period.

Just 13 seconds later, Nick Holden would make the home team's hard work pay off when he received a pass from Kevin Hayes and went with a silky forehand-backhand deke to deposit the puck over Anderson's right pad and blocker for the 1-0 lead at 14:04.

Of course, it's not a playoff hockey game without some extracurricular activities, and with just 59.1 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Zack Smith and Brady Skjei exchanged pleasantries in front of Lundqvist's net. The resulting tussle led to a Rangers' power play that would carryover into the second period.

After killing off the duration of the Blueshirts' power play to start the second period, Ottawa found themselves down 2-0 when, Tanner Glass and Michael Grabner combined to feed Oscar Lindberg on a 2-on-1 odd man rush for the goal. Lindberg's second in as many games, at 2:01 of the second period.

At the 5:45 mark of the middle frame, Lundqvist would make a sprawling save in front of his net, and Derek Stepan and Rick would take the puck up the ice trying to recreate Nash's goal from Game 3. Alas, it seems Anderson learned his lesson as he stopped the dynamic duo and kept the score at 2-0 Rangers.

After some more extracurriculars, involving Marc Methot, Erik Karlsson, and Mats Zuccarello resulted in a series of power plays, Lundqvist would again come up big, as he stone walled former teammate Viktor Stalberg, at 14:26 with a pad save and then covered up.

Just then, with three-quarters of the period gone by, Oscar Lindberg inspired some to say, "give that man an Oscar," as he sniped a beautiful roof job over the shoulder of Anderson from the face-off dot to Craig's blocker side, for the 3-0 ranger lead at 15:54. The assists going to JT Miller and of course Tanner Glass.

To begin the third period, Ottawa coach Guy Boucher decided to yank Anderson (to give him some rest) in favor of backup Mike Condon.

For the first few moments of the period, it appeared that Condon would hold down the fort, especially as Lundqvist was forced to bail out his defense with a tremendous point blank save on Mark Stone at the six minute mark of the final frame.

Another Ottawa penalty, this time Clarke MacArthur was called for hooking, would soon follow at 10:32. 

This time though, the Rangers made Ottawa pay for their undisciplined play. Chris Kreider banged home a rebound, after Ryan McDonagh fired a shot off Condon through traffic that happened to fall right at Kreider's feet. With the score now 4-0, and the Rangers having tallied a power play goal -- a rarity in these parts -- the game began to develop a nasty edge. The goal was registered at 10:45 of the third period, and the assists were given to McDonagh and Derek Stepan.

Then just moments later, Kyle Turris would breakup Lundqvist's shutout bid when he used Marc Staal as a screen and sniped one past the Ranger netminder at 13:34.

With the score now 4-1 in favor of New York, Dion Phaneuf had had enough and decided to make something out of nothing as he and Brendan Smith dropped their gloves in the neutral zone.

The last few minutes of the game saw a number of penalties called, but the highlight was Bobby Ryan getting called for slashing at 17:32 and then being given a game misconduct. As he was walking off the ice, he raised his arms as if to incite the crowd. 

As the final moments ticked off the clock, the game took on a harder edge still.

With 25.1 seconds remaining in the game, Ottawa had had enough. Kyle Turris would start a fracas with Tanner Glass, and after being sent to the dressing room, Mark Stone decided to start a melee of his own by going after Oscar Lindberg. Soon, Alexandre Burrows, Marc Methot, and Viktor Stalberg would join their comrades in the dressing room after partaking in the fracas. 

A 4-1 win in the books, and a tied series at two games apiece, were music to the Rangers' ears, even if they were pretty banged up from the end of game fisticuffs. 

WHAT THEY SAID:

RANGER COACH ALAIN VIGNEAUT: “What we’ve done is won another game here and won at home which we had to do.  We’re making a couple plays with the puck that we need to make and we’ve been able to capitalize on a couple of chances.”

OSCAR LINDBERG: “I think our line has been doing a really good job, getting pucks back from the fore-check. We had two good chances today and we were able to bear down.”

TANNER GLASS:“It’s huge. It’s been a trying year to say the least, but I kept faith in myself and my family has been huge for me. It’s a good support system down there. I believed I could play at this level and it’s nice for me to be here right now.”

HENRIK LUNDQVIST:“Well I think it’s starts with believing in ourselves, in our system, and the way we’ve been playing all year.  We’re not going to change much now.  It comes down to execution, focus.  We talked about that after the last game.  Coming home from Ottawa it was important for us not to feel sorry for ourselves being in a tough spot.  It was about sticking to the process, do the right thing in practice.  We had some great meetings.  I thought the last two games here, even the three games, we’ve been playing some really good hockey and a lot of good things and scoring some big goals, getting goals from all four lines, it’s huge for us.  But attention to details I think here sticks out when we look at these games.”

MARC STAAL:“I think we’ve played well and we have been tough to play against in our own end. We haven’t really given too many chances and that can be frustrating. We are up by a bunch at the end of the game, they are probably just trying to get something going.”

Get Ready For Game 5 saturday In Ottawa At 3pm!