Rookie Stepan reaches 20-goal mark

BOSTON -- With players such as the Islanders' Michael Grabner and the Sharks' Logan Couture and scoring far more goals, 20-year old center Derek Stepan probably won't win the Calder Memorial Trophy as this season's top rookie.

But Saturday's game-winner, a first-period deflection off a shot by defenseman Michael Sauer, was Stepan's 20th goal. It helped the Rangers to a 1-0 win over the Bruins.

Stepan is the youngest Ranger player to reach 20 goals since Alex Kovalev scored 23 in the 1993-94 season. He also is the first Ranger rookie with 20 goals since Petr Prucha did it during the 2005-06 season.

"He's a competitive kid at heart," said defenseman Ryan McDonagh, another of the Rangers surprising freshman class, who played with Stepan at the University of Wisconsin. "And he wants more. It's not in a selfish aspect at all. He's one of the most team-oriented guys I ever played with."

Stepan is the fifth Ranger to reach 20 goals this season. He joins Ryan Callahan (23), Marian Gaborik (22), Brandon Dubinsky (22) and Brian Boyle (21). Last year the team had only three players reach 20. Artem Anisimov has 18 goals.

"[Anisimov's] taking the slow route," joked Stepan, the Rangers' second-round pick in 2008 who left the Badgers after his sophomore season and a spectacular international tournament. "We're deep in scoring. Anytime you have four lines than can score goals, it takes the pressure off certain guys."

Stepan, a Hastings, Minn. native, deals with the pressure pretty well, too. He was captain of the gold-medal winning U.S. team in the IIHF World Championship, and led the tournament in scoring, with four goals and 10 assists in seven games.

Off the ice, Stepan is comfortable in the spotlight as well. He told reporters last week that he should win the annual "Good Guy" award for cooperation with the media, and deserved it more than fellow Rangers rookie, Mats Zuccarello. When Zuccarello protested, Stepan told him: "You have to be able to speak English."

One area where Stepan, who was inserted between Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal before Saturday's game by coach John Tortorella, needs to improve is on faceoffs.

"He's been god-awful, and he was probably our best faceoff guy today," said Tortorella, after watching Stepan win eight of 12 faceoffs. "A couple coaches [worked with] him [Friday], because you almost have to try to be [2-for-13] as he was the prior game. But he won a big faceoff [on the Rangers' only goal] -- it was a really a tie and then Vinny [Prospal] gets it back [to Sauer at the point]."

To his credit, Stepan, who has 41 points -- understands that his faceoffs -- and his goals -- haven't all been pretty. "Hey, I didn't win it clean," he said. "Vinny comes in and cleans it up, slides it back to Mike Sauer, and I'm looking at him, and my stick was in tight on me, but the puck hits the shaft and finds a way to get in the net. I kind of knew it was going to be that way."