New York Rangers backup Goaltender Stephen Valiquette was amazing in tonight's game as he recorded the shutout in a 3-0 win.Stephen was prepared in every way he could have been with 18 saves as his team also played great two way Hockey behind him.
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How much more can you ask for when your backup goalie can play his first game, and not allow a goal?
The good news about tonight is we all witnessed the return of #16 Sean Avery to the New York Rangers to start his new season.
S. Avery is a fan favorite at Madison Square Garden, and he came out skating hard looking like he is in full rhythm to start the year.
While taking a blind eye toward anything done by a Ducks player the NHL Referees never seem to miss anything when they get the opportunity to call a penalty on the Rangers.
New York controlled the Hockey game by a lot in the early going, but the NHL officials found a way to miss another penalty that should have been.
Rangers #10 Marian Gaborik was chasing the puck ready to make something happen when he was held back from a Ducks player tree hugging him for 6 seconds, but of course nothing would be called.
Then 30 seconds later they were quick to call a penalty on New York's rookie defensemen Matt Gilroy.
It seems like the officials do anything they can to always stop the Rangers momentum in every game that they play.
After almost 15 minutes of play in the 1st period New York finally got a power play when they should have had 2 or 3 by this point of the game.
The Rangers got a 2 man advantage after the Ducks took an obvious tripping penalty, which is the only time the officials give New York anything when it is a play that the whole world can see.
New York was applying the pressure all period but the Anaheim Ducks got a nice effort out of goalie #35 Jean-Sebastien Giguere who had to shut down a tireless attack.
J. Giguere was brilliant in goal as looked like a brick wall in net making 13 saves as his team couldn't get any offense with one shot on net.
To start the 2nd period Rangers Sean Avery looked to have his legs with him in tonight's game as he was constantly finding the open puck.
With a little over 6 minutes left in the 2nd period the officials started to let Anaheim get away with murder as one player was was trying to throw jabs into a Rangers Valec Prospel's face while M. Gaborik was tripped in front of the goalie with the puck on the other end.
The referees seemed to have lost their vision for that minute as they let almost everything go.
With a little over 2 minutes to go there was another call missed as New York's Marian Gaborik would be pulled down again with the puck in front of the opposing net.
Again there was no call, as Rangers Sean Avery finally gave Anaheim a taste of their own medicine at the end of the period getting into one of their star players face.
S. Avery began to rile up his team, and get under the skin of the Ducks at the end of the 2nd period.
The agitator is back doing what he does best as the game went into a 0-0 3rd period with both goaltenders playing outstanding.
# 12 Ales Kotalik earned a big power play goal to put New York on the board in the 3rd period as he celebrates with #24 Ryan Callahan.Ales looks to be playing really well from the opening period of the first game in Pittsburgh proving that he is a name to be noticed.
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The Blueshirts continued to take advantage of the Ducks over aggressive play as they were able to draw another penalty.
Artem Animisov scored his 1st goal of the season to cash in on the man advantage to go up 2-0.
The 3rd goal of the game for New York came on an empty net goal from Daniel Girardi who also recorded his 1st goal of the year.
Overall the Rangers were fantastic skating hard all game as they have since the get go. They are now 4-1 after winning their fourth game in a row.
The New York Rangers will play again tomorrow for another home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7:00 pm on MSG.
New York is having an excellent start to this season, and there team looks to really be gelling together right now as a unit that will be tough to beat.
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