Thursday, April 26, 2007

Upper New York State gets the Upper hand in game one


The New York Rangers found out first hand what all the talk was about this past season, after a first twenty minutes of feeling each other out, the Sabres launched a scoring blitz in the second period that left the Blue shirts reeling by the time forty minutes had elapsed.

Three Sabre goals were tallied within five minutes in the second, a rapid push that left the faithful dancing in the aisles as the Boys of Broadway struggled to find their legs and make any kind of counter attack.

Though the truth be told, most of the Ranger misfortune came at their own hands, penalties took their toll on the Big City New Yorkers as they spent far too much time serving penance for their sins and less time taking the puck to Ryan Miller.

Sean Avery, who has quickly become public enemy number one in Buffalo, was his pesky self but also proved to be problematic for his own team. His style of play not only attracted the attention the Sabres hockey club and their fans, but also seemed to make him heavy on the radar of the officials.

Avery was called twice for infractions, leaving his team mates to kill off pointless penalties, a common occurrence from more than a few of his fellow team mates. Far too many selfish penalties left the Rangers on the defensive for a good portion of the night, when they could have been working on an attack that was missing a few sparks on Wednesday and in need of a tune up.

The Sabres didn’t exactly outplay the Rangers, though they certainly outscored them. Taking advantage of Ranger miscues, Buffalo was in firm control of the game by the time the third period rolled around and the 5-2 victory was secured.

The Rangers had a brief window to jump back into the game with a two minute block of time where they had a five on three advantage, but the team that dismissed Atlanta without much trouble, couldn’t muster much of an attack against the speedy and hard hitting Sabres.

The Big city Rangers will regroup and try to figure out how the handle the Sabres speed, physical play and goaltending magic. For the Sabres, game two offers up another chance to keep the Rangers off balance and take a two game to none lead off to the Big Apple.

In the battle of New York State the northern cousins are feeling pretty good after one game and they and their fans are more than aware that taking care of the Rangers as soon as possible is the best possible scenario.

The Rangers, who have more playoff ghosts of things gone wrong hanging around their locker room than most NHL teams, will want to even things up fast. Too many things can go wrong when your competition gets too far ahead, time can run out and so can your luck around the net.
Game two should prove to be a pivotal match in the family feud of New York State, a key moment that could prove to be where the series is destined to go and which team has plans to make the full journey.

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