Rangers revisited: A blown lead and a tough loss

November 9 is not a great date for New York Rangers hockey with only one game in the last five years

With no New York Rangers hockey until January, we will try to give all Ranger fans a taste of hockey by reliving the best moment on this date over the last five years.

Friday, November 9, the Rangers were in the first season of their rebuild and the game they played was an example of what was to come. It was the kind of game that caused the David Quinn slow burn as the Blueshirts blew a two goal first period lead, allowed the Red Wings to tie the game with two minutes left and then lost the game in overtime with only six seconds left.

The Rangers were in the middle of a series of impressive games, on a four game winning streak.  This was their second loss in a stretch when they won nine of 11 games losing only one game in regulation.  Success was misleading and this loss was a harbinger of things to come.

The game

The Rangers took the lead on two power play goals in the first period.  They took advantage of a double minor to Jacob de la Rose for cutting Kevin Hayes with a high stick.  Kevin Shattenkirk scored first and was followed by Neal Pionk less than a minute later.

The Rangers controlled play in the Detroit zone and Shattenkirk snapped a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle that Jimmy Howard did not see.

Pionk’s goal deflected off Detroit defenseman Darren Helm.  It was Pionk’s third straight game with a goal, the longest streak of his career.

After a scoreless second period, the Rangers let Detroit back in the game when Jonathan Abdelkader scored just 1:46 into the third period.

The goal was off an egregious giveaway by Brendan Smith.  The former Red Wing had clean possession behind the net, but coughed up the puck under pressure from Gustav Nyquist

The Rangers were outshot 10-5 in the third period and the Red Wings knotted the score at 17:58 of the third period on an Andreas Athanasiou goal.

Athanasiou used his speed to get past a flatfooted Ranger defense (Staal and Pionk) and put a backhand by Henrik Lundqvist.

There were only five shots in the overtime period, three by Detroit and it was their last one that went in.  Dylan Larkin scored the goal to win it for the Red Wings.

Though it was Larkin’s goal, the play was made by Athanasiou who got the pass to the Red Wing center.

The star of the game was Jimmy Howard who grew up idolizing Mike Richter and wears his number 35.  He stopped 28 of 30 shots including this stop on hard luck Vlad Namestnikov.

Henrik Lundqvist got third star honors for stopping 28 of 31 shots including this glove save on a rising shot by Mike Green on the power play.

It was a bitter loss by the Rangers as they gave away a point and their fifth straight win.  The goat of the game was Brendan Smith and it was example of the careless play that has made him such a frustrating player for the Blueshirts.