Rangers beat Wild 3-2

"I just tried to throw it in front"

That was Ryan McDonagh's statement about his game winning assist in the third period. The feed bounced off a defenseman's stick and found Fedetenko - who buried the puck and gave the Rangers a 3-2 victory against the Minnesota Wild.

Ryan is from Minnesota - and there were more than 80 friends and family in attendance according to the Ranger's top line defenseman. So it must have felt extra good to get the final assist in a close game.

It was also a homecoming for Marian Gaborik - who scored the first-ever goal for the Wild when that team first entered the NHL - and still holds most of their offensive all time records.

The Gifted Gab scored on a beautiful feed by Brad Richards - that found him in front of the net. Gabby had a fraction of time and a tiny piece of ice to work with - but he stopped the puck - switched from back- to fore-hand and netted the goal to temporarily give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

The first Ranger goal was from Boyle - who must have read Hockey Rodent's negative comments about him recently (that he was slow and could not skate well enough to be on a cup champion) because Brian played hard and well all night.

The Rangers outshot and outhit their opponent yet again. But last night the Penatly Kill let them down - they surrendered both goals while a man short. In fact - on one sequence Callahan played stick-less - making it nearly a 2 man advantage.

Some very good signs from Henrik Lundqvist - who had a .923 save percentage that was the difference last night.

Besides the 2 assists for McDonagh, there were assists by Richards (as mentioned), Girardi, and Stralman.

It's a win and we'll take it. And to top it off - the Islanders of all people beat the Penguins 5-3. So with 6 to play the Rangers are up 3 points.

Tonight we play the Jets. I wonder if we'll see Tebow.

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