The New York Rangers lost to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in a tough 11-round shootout Thursday night at The Garden. Head coach John Tortorella was facing his old team once again and saw some familiar faces on the ice. The story of the game was rookie Mats Zuccarello coming up from Connecticut who took Marian Gaborik’s spot in the lineup. After the game Mats said:
“I came in here pretty nervous and thinking a little too much, but as the game went on I got more and more the feel of it,” said Zuccarello, who skated on a line with Derek Stepan and Brandon Dubinsky. “My game was OK. I got a lot of help from Dubi and (Sean) Avery and guys talking to me telling me what to do. I felt good about that.”
Zuccarello is small in stature but made some amazing plays during the game. His talent was seen immediately as he controlled the puck well in the offensive zone. Mats was sent back to the Whale to play in Sundays game but will most likely return to the Rangers for Mondays game against the visiting Islanders. Mats even scored in the shootout. The Blueshirts came back twice and most importantly tied it 3-3 in the 3rd period to earn a point in the standings. Two of Tampa Bay’s goals were on scored on Ranger giveaways and they’re too talented a team to give them scoring chances like that. Artem Anisimov had another strong game leading the way with six shots on goal. For a while in the early part of the season AA was in Tortorella’s doghouse. The Rangers goal scorers were Ruslan Fedotenko at the 11:16 minute mark of the 1st period, Alex Frolov just 12 seconds later and Derek Stepan at 11:18 of the 3rd period. Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was visibly upset after the game and had this to say in the dressing room afterwards:
“When you lose in the shootout, as a goalie you take it pretty personally,” said Lundqvist, who finished with 21 saves, including three in overtime. “Points are huge in the end, and I wanted to make that extra stop to get the win. It was very frustrating at the end.”
The three stars of the game, all Rangers were: Alex Frolov, Derek Stepan and Artem Anisimov.
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