The Rangers may have played their best period all season going three for five on the power play and peppering Olaf Kolzig with 20 shots.

The Blueshirts seemed very cohesive as a unit on the man advantage, which is something that dogged them on the Island on Wednesday. After that game, both Brendan Shanahan and Tom Renney spoke about special team situations and how they will be worked on. It seemed like it worked.

Joromir Jagr looked strong with three assists and Scott Gomez scored his first goal as Ranger.

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Power play goals from Dane Byers and Ryan Callahan paced the Rangers to a 2-0 lead.

But more than that was the injuey to Kevin Weekes, who hit his head on the crossbar ad he went down after Sean Avery pushed Johnny Oduya into the former Ranger. After several minutes down on the ice, he was helpped off.

The Byers goal was scored off Weekes and the Callahan tally was off his Jordan Parise, Zack’s brother.

Otherwhise the Rangers look good as they have had a solid attack and Anisimov blends well with Avery and Shanahan.

Also Dan Girardi with 2 assists. Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal both with one.

More after 2…. 

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Well, outside of one poor penalty kill, the Rangers killed the Sabres this period. 13-4 on shots. A great power play and basically total domination.

Unless he’s hurt, you have to wonder why Isbister was dressed over Ortmeyer. On Brian Campbell’s power play goal, that’s a shot Ortmeyer usually blocks. Unless he’s hurt, there’s little reason.

Now onto the good things. If they can keep up this pace, Buffalo will have a tough time keeping up with the Blueshirts. They just look like they have fresher legs.

Now at the end of the period, Michal Rozsival took a check into the boards, so you wonder if he re-injured that leg. That would be a key loss.

Stay Tuned for more….

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At even strength, the Rangers outplayed the Sabres, but they have to stay out of the box. Giving a team like Buffalo power play after power play will come back to haunt them. It’s that simple.

That being said, Lundqvist was up to the task and the Rangers. The Sabres outshot the Rangers, but with a couple of PPs, who’s counting?  So it’s not terrible.

But stay out of the box.

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First, hats off to the Vancouver Canucks. Great game and also a tip of the cap to Joel “Henrik’s Brother” Lundqvist, who scored the only Dallas goal.

It’s funny, I was sitting in front of my TV just hoping it would not go into overtime. Not because it would end at 2 a.m., but because the reporter in me came out.

Everyone wants to see the miracle ending and yes, it’s much easier to cover a winning locker room compared to a losing one, but the last second comeback makes every reporter rip up a story and start anew.

I remember doing that last year for Game 7 of the NLCS, where I had a nice story written about Endy Chavez – called “Leaving Us Breathless” [Yes, only I can compare baseball to a girly song by the Corrs] – to tearing it up and penning “The Tears of Shea Stadium” [Unlike the daily guys, I have to write my own headlines and usually they come up bad]. It’s not fun. And sometimes your best work goes on the cutting room floor. Nobody wants that.

Anyway, no one wants to do twice the amount of work, so the miracle comeback is not conducive to easy journalism, especially for the daily guys who are on tight deadlines. That’s why Game 3 at the Garden was such a joy to cover.

Ok on to more pressing matters, like the ECSF. The Rangers open up on Wednesday in Buffalo. Here are the keys to the series for the Rangers:

1) Great goaltending: Yes, Henrik needs to outplay Ryan Miller. He needs to be as sharp as he was in the first round and may have to cover up defensive a mistake or two, which didn’t happen against the Thrashers.

2) Stay out of the box: Let’s face it, Atlanta’s power play was terrible, and even though, Buffalo’s isn’t that much better [They are ranked 17^th]. Their fast attack is not going to be conducive to the Rangers penalty kills. On the other hand, the Blueshirts can take advantage of the Sabres a man down, since Buffalo was ranked only 20^th on the penalty kill.

3) The third and fourth lines are key: Buffalo can roll four lines at even strength. Not saying the Rangers can match that, but with a pretty good third one with Matt Cullen, Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan, the checking line of Blair Betts, Jed Ortmeyer and either Colton Orr or Ryan Hollweg will come into play. If they can get meaningful and productive minutes and not burn the top two lines, the Rangers have a chance.

Oh and I promised a prediction:

Rangers in 7

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