The Garden crowd was loud early and kept it up throughout the game, willing the Blueshirts to win. You could hear the crowd roaring throughout the national anthem and it would not stop during the game. The Garden did not come up with any fancy chant for Chris Neil, they just went straight to the point. Before Neil took the ice, the crowd started the chant of "NEIL IS AN ASSHOLE" and then when he came on the ice, the crowd would chant "ASSHOLE" whenever he touched the puck. Not very imaginative but it is what it is.
The Rangers came out with as much fire as the crowd had. The Rangers attacked the Senator's net and took the body when they had to. They were going to play their game no matter what the refs and Shanahan thought. Halfway through the first period, the Senators goaltender, Craig Anderson decided to take a stroll behind his net to play the puck. Brandon Prust came barreling in and there was some minimum contact and Anderson went down to the ice. Anderson basically laid there looking for a call from the ref. It was not going to happen tonight.
Chris Kreider, the newly signed Boston College hockey star, is going to be a star in this league. He basically set up the Rangers first goal with 4:46 into the second period. Kreider forced the turnover at the Senator's blue line with Callahan picking it up and dishing it to Derek Stepan. Marc Staal was filling in the left lane and Stepan put the puck right on Staal's stick. Staal one timed it past Anderson for a one goal lead.
Approximately 4 minutes after this goal, Dan Girardi put one in past Anderson for a 2-0 Rangers lead. Nice to see that the two goals scored by the Rangers were by defensemen.
With about two minutes left in the second period, Daniel Alfredsson scored a power play goal making the score 2-1.
After this goal, Lundquist became Lundquist, and need we say more.
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