Ranger relief in double OT

The hockey Gods finally smiled on the New York Rangers Sunday, the Blue shirts who played a spirited and impressive game in this third match up in the best of seven with Buffalo, seemed fated to lose game three in a most unfair fashion.

The Rangers, who were denied a goal on a questionable redirection call during regulation time, stemmed the flow of the Sabre attack to until the middle stages of the third period. It was at 12:14 of the third that the Daniel Briere of the Sabres picked up the equalizer and prepared the Madison Square Crowd for overtime.

The Rangers who had been taking the play to the Sabres for the previous periods must have been wondering just what does it take to take a win from the upper New York state visitors. When they weren’t finding problems beating Ryan Miller

The first overtime gave both teams ample opportunity to finish off game three and take home a win, but as has been the case for most of this series both Ranger goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and the Sabres Miller held up their end of the bargain, keeping opposing scorers at bay for the first twenty minute OT.

The second OT was just as exciting, both teams had chances and hit posts or just wide shots were there to torture the crowd. Finally the Rangers managed to pick up the winning goal mid way through the second OT when Michal Rozsival put a shot through a crowd from just past the right point which found its way behind Miller.

While the two OT’s were entertaining there did seem to be a sense of justice that the Rangers were the victors, having had the bulk of the chances through the five periods of hockey they no doubt felt that the net result was deserved.

From calls that went against them, to more amazing work from Miller in the Buffalo goal, it was a desperate Rangers team that kept on the mission to win back a game from the Sabres.

It could proved to be a major confidence booster for the Rangers, who showed signs of life in game two but came up just a little short. Now that they have a win under their belts, it could be the moment of momentum change that every series seems to find.

The Sabres will be looking to retake that mood with game four on Tuesday, a match that could go a fair way to showing which team is willing to claw their way through to the next round.