Rangers “outwork” Sabres, 2-1.

By Jon Gabrielle, NY Rangers correspondent

If Brian Boyle’s shot, that hit the post with 70 seconds remaining, didn’t add more grey to John Tortorella’s already aging goatee, then certainly Jason Pomenville’s goal with 59 seconds left, surely did.

With the score 2-0 Rangers, and Buffalo using an extra attacker, the point blank miss from 30 feet away by Boyle, towards an empty net, would have added a nice touch to a strong  effort in western New York by the Blueshirts. Instead, Pomenville took a feed and raced down the right side. That’s where he unloaded a slap shot that somehow found its way past Henrik Lundqvist on his stick side to break the shutout and pull the Sabres within a goal with just under a minute to go in the game.

Fortunately for the Rangers, they didn’t need the empty netter, nor was Buffalo able to notch another score with their goalie pulled. Final score: Rangers 2 Sabres 1.

In recent weeks, with a dearth of wins and goals to his credit, head coach John Tortorella has been heard at sundry a press conference; talking about getting back to work and going to work. If one had just been beemed in from another planet, you might have gotten the impression that the Ranger coach, instead of donning a track suit, a pair of skates as well as the occasional game day suit, actually worked in coveralls and headed underground into a coal mine.

Be that as it may…the Ranger coach has expressed on more than one occasion recently, that a goal a game is not enough to win consistently in this league. And last night, the coach turned prophet, as with just over 6 minutes left in a 1-0 Ranger lead, Ryan Callahan banged in a rebound of Sean Avery’s shot, giving his team a second goal and 2-0 lead.

Against this team and in this building, in what Tortorella called, “a tough building and a very good team to play against,” the two Ranger goals were enough, barely.

Continuing the head coach praised his goalie. “Hank was outstanding and we found a way to win a one goal game…it’s something to build on.”

Zetterberg/Lidstrom visit Garden(photo by dulouz cats/flickr)

With the soild team effort against the Sabres behind them, there’s little time to exhale as the Detroit Red Wings are in town, literally.

Having lost in a shootout to the Devils last night, the Wings boarded their bus back across the Hudson to their Manhattan hotel. There, an ornery bunch of Wings waited while the Rangers flew back from Buffalo early in the morning.

With both teams on the outside of the playoff bubble looking in; the Wings in an uncustomary 10th place in the Western Conference standings, while the Rangers sit in 9th in the east, it should make for a spirited Original Six match-up at Madison Square Garden.

And time for both teams to…”get back to work!”

Posted by Jon Gabrielle on Dec 6 2009. Filed under Atlantic, Eastern Conference, New York Rangers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.