Parenteau gives Rangers shootout victory
Photo credit: AP | New York Rangers celebrate their win over the Ottawa Senators in a shootout during a game in Ottawa. The Rangers won 2-1. (November 14, 2009)
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Nov. 14: Rangers 2, Ottawa 1
OTTAWA - With the seventh round of the team's first shootout looming and the struggling Rangers tied with the Senators, coach John Tortorella turned to rookie P.A. Parenteau.
"We asked him, 'In the American League, were you any good at this?' '' Tortorella said. "He said, 'Yeah, actually I'm pretty good at it.' So we gave him an opportunity."
Parenteau, a confident right wing who scored against the Islanders last month in his first NHL game of the season, used a familiar deke - and his wrister beat goaltender Brian Elliott high on the glove side as the Rangers earned a 2-1 win.
"That's been my go-to move," said Parenteau, 26, who has four shootout winners in the AHL and was summoned Friday because of injuries to Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky. "I played against Elliott in the minors a couple times, so I figured I'd try that. He went down and the high side was open."
Henrik Lundqvist sealed the win by turning away Milan Michalek's attempt, his fifth shootout save, and lifted his career shootout record to 19-12 with a .781 save percentage. That ended a two-game skid for the Rangers (11-8-1).
"Hank was the key," said Vinny Prospal, who tied the score at 1 at 10:58 of the second period, tapping in Marian Gaborik's pinpoint pass on a two-on-one break for the Rangers' third shorthanded goal of the season. "They had a lot of chances in the second, and he was the difference, like [Miikka] Kiprusoff was against us in Calgary."
In that period, Lundqvist made 16 saves of his 35 saves, allowing only Brian Lee's screened wrister from the slot at 4:29. "We need Hank to play that way," Tortorella said. "Especially when we got into penalty problems."
The coach emphasized that the game-saver was a penalty kill for the final 1:23 of overtime with Ales Kotalik off for tripping. "The four-on-three we killed at the end [with Marc Staal, Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi on the ice], that was huge. It ends up gaining us two points," Tortorella said. Overall, that trio had 11 of the Rangers' 20 blocked shots.
"I feel so good," a relieved Lundqvist said. "Things haven't been fun around here and we really needed the points. We had some pushback at the end of the second and in the third. We were ready to pay the price."
Shooting at an open net on a power play, Parenteau missed high with 3:02 left in regulation. "I knew I had the empty net all along,'' he said, "and the puck rolled on me."
He also took the blame for the sole Senators goal. "One bad backcheck," said Parenteau, who is from Quebec and had 20 friends and family members in the crowd. "I got beat up the ice by Lee, but otherwise I was OK, made some good passes. I told myself before the game to hold on to the puck more; I don't want to dump it all the time."
Gaborik, whose assist on Prospal's shorthander was his 25th point, putting him second in the NHL in scoring, never dumps it in either. "It gave us a little bit of life," Prospal said.
It was his first shorthanded goal in 894 games. Said Prospal, "That's why it was a little more special."
