Stepan, Kreider and McDonagh lead USA to win

In case you weren't paying attention, there's other hockey going on over in the Czech Republic where the World Championships are taking place. Today, Team USA got off on the right foot by posting a 5-1 win over Austria. A better beginning for ex-Isles coach Scott Gordon who also was behind the bench last year when they were upset by Germany in their first game.

Wisconsin was well represented with the Ranger duo of Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh donning the cool home white USA threads along with 21 year-old Craig Smith, who's a Nashville prospect. All had good days with Stepan setting up a pair of goals, including one for future Blueshirt Chris Kreider, who looked poised throughout. The Boston College standout is expected to return for his junior season, which probably is the right decision. No sense rushing the former No.1 pick when our team probably is a couple of years away from contending. It's encouraging to see Kreids looking like he belongs while getting the chance to reunite with WJC hero Stepan and McD.

Other highlights included Thrasher Blake Wheeler finishing off a nice dish from a tough angle and Blue defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk rifling one far side past Austrian netminder Jurgen Penker (27 saves).

Another familiar face represented the red, white and blue in net with Islander Al Montoya turning aside 12 of 13 shots. Seeing Al in net was cool, giving me flashbacks of his heroic effort in '03 that led USA to upsetting Canada when Marc-Andre Fleury's gaffe allowed our country to finally win the World Junior Championships. Of course, Ranger fans still fret over Glen Sather selecting Montoya sixth overall in the '04 Draft. What people forget is that Henrik Lundqvist was unknown and Dan Blackburn was finished due to that freak injury in the weight room. I will always feel Al never got a fair shake here due to Lundqvist's emergence. He was an AHL All-Star his second pro season in '06-07 but was blocked by Steve Valiquette. There were a couple of instances he was an emergency recall but for whatever reason, Ranger brass refused to start him when it could've boosted his value.

Eventually, Al was dealt to Rangers West in the Desert with Marcel Hossa for Freddy Sjostrom, David LeNeveu and Josh Gratton. Ironically, he was similarly blocked by Ilya Bryzgalov and former Ranger Jason LaBarbera. The former Wolverine got his break when the Islanders gave him a shot with the Chicago native producing nice results (9 Wins, 2.39 GAA, .921 Save Pct, SHO). Al was re-signed for next year and will likely split duty with Rick DiPietro.

Kudos to Versus for extending their hockey coverage this morning at 10 ET with familiar face Bill Pidto running things along with special guest analyst Zach Parise, which had to bring a tear to Devil fans. He looked a bit weird in studio but did alright. The next game is Monday at 10. So, if you can't catch it live, set the DVR. Somewhere in California, Brian's smiling. :P

Bruins clinch thanks to NHL record

One more team is in the Big Dance. Thanks to an unlikely NHL record, the Bruins clinched a playoff spot by posting a hard fought 4-2 win over the Hurricanes at TD Garden this afternoon. The two points give them 89 points with one more game tomorrow versus the Caps. They can finish either sixth or seventh pending tonight's Leafs-Habs Hockey Night In Canada clash. Montreal needs at least a point to wrap up a spot.

Claude Julien's club dominated the first half of the game, taking it to a Carolina club playing its final game and looking ready for a Par 4 course. Despite 18 first period shots with many quality chances, the Bruins couldn't solve Cam Ward. Amazingly, a late Matt Hunwick minor for hooking proved pivotal. With 1:42 left on the penalty, Boston did the unthinkable- scoring three consecutive shorthanded goals in a 64-second span to set an NHL record. Daniel Paille got the bizarre sequence started by taking a Zdeno Chara feed and beating Ward down low at 32 seconds. Just 49 ticks later, David Krejci set up Blake Wheeler for No.2. With the crowd in a frenzy including quirky NESN play-by-play man Jack Edwards, Steve Begin set the record when he took a great Dennis Wideman outlet and went five-hole only 15 seconds later.

Never before had that happened. When the Bruins needed it most, they delivered one of the greatest NHL moments, which ultimately sealed the postseason. It still didn't come easy with the pesky Canes chipping away thanks to goals from Erik Cole via backhand wrap and Pat Dwyer less than three minutes apart to cut the margin to one. With time winding down in the crazy second, they came close to tying it. It would be a sign of things to come. An even nuttier play took place which could've cost Boston in the third. After failing on one power play, a delayed call for a second saw them accidentally miss a shot wide. The puck caromed off the boards past everyone headed to the vacant net. Yes. It looked like they were screwed. However, their heart and soul Patrice Bergeron made a great hustle play skating hard to just get his stick on it to sweep it away at the last second. An outstanding play by a guy who always gives the effort. Following a brief review which confirmed miraculous save, he got a great reception. It's players like Bergeron and Krejci that have stepped up minus offensive leader Marc Savard, who is expected to miss the first round.

With the B's sitting back, the Canes didn't go away outshooting them 8-5. They forced rookie Tuukka Rask to make a couple of tricky saves. Overall, the outstanding 23 year-old Finn they stole from the Leafs for Andrew Raycroft finished with 33 saves, improving to 22-12-5 with a 1.97 GAA, .931 save percentage and five shutouts. The Calder likely is going to Jimmy Howard. Would either rook be a Vezina candidate? Unlikely with Ryan Miller and Ilya Bryzgalov the co-leaders with Martin Brodeur, Evgeni Nabokov, Jaroslav Halak and Henrik Lundqvist all in the mix. In 45 games (39 starts), Rask leads the league in GAA and save percentage. Awfully hard to ignore considering that he supplanted last year's Vezina winner Tim Thomas and got the league's lowest scoring offense into the playoffs.

For Boston, they can breathe easier and watch the Canadiens tonight and Flyers and Rangers following their game to see who winds up heart broken. They earned it.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Tuukka Rask, Bos (33 saves for 22nd win)
2nd Star-Cam Ward, Car (38 saves incl. 33/36 first 2 periods)
1st Star-Daniele Paille-Blake Wheeler-Steve Begin, Bos (NHL record 3 SHG in 64 seconds)


UPDATED EASTERN PLAYOFF STANDINGS

+1.Caps 120 Pts
*2.Devils 99 Pts
&3.Sabres 98 Pts
*4.Pens 99 Pts
*5.Sens 94 Pts
*6.Bruins 89 Pts
7.Habs 87 Pts
8.Flyers 86 Pts
________________
9.Rangers 86 Pts

Higgins late goal saves Rangers

For more than 50 minutes, they'd outplayed the Bruins and were leading by two. Rare in itself. But if you've followed this team, you know nothing ever comes easy. So, when a sleepwalking Boston club struck for two in 86 seconds tying it with just over four minutes left, it shouldn't have been a great shock. Neither was the fact Matt Hunwick's shorthanded tally started the comeback with our guys standing around and still dazed enough to let the B's tie.

The more stunning aspect was who scored to rescue the Rangers to an actual regulation win on home ice. Oh. And they scored three without Marian Gaborik on the score sheet. The winner actually came off the stick of Chris Higgins, who finally got off the schneid for his first goal in an eternity. Also his first on home ice. Maybe they can now have a freeze frame MSG Chris Higgins profile as a Ranger.Couldn't resist. In all seriousness, he has been busting his ass for the past two months. So, it was nice to see him finally get rewarded off if I may say some nice work by the captain Chris Drury and constant Ryan Callahan.

“We played a strong game,” the hero said after ending an 11-goal drought. “We just let up a little bit. … We let them back into the game. But we were confident we were going to win, even when they tied it up.”

It allowed them to win a game at MSG and actually jump into a tie with idle Montreal for seventh. They both have 45 points but Les Habitants have played two more games. So technically, we're ahead even though the Habs are playing much better. How bad is the East? Do you even have to ask? The good news if you can actually call it that is that our flawed team is in playoff position. The bad is that if they somehow make it, they'll be easy pickings for the Devils, Caps or Sabres. I fail to see what another gate does for this franchise other than hook up our greedy owner who will screw the fans more than Bret Hart got screwed by Vince McMahon. And that would also mean Slats stays put and again, we're stuck.

All that said, they played solid earning their 20th win in 42 games. Seriously. That's less than half and we're sitting in seventh. For some reason, Boston tried everything to hand us the game, taking four undisciplined minor penalties in a row, including a five-on-three our team blew. But a miracle of sorts took place when there was an Ally Kota-leak sighting. Off a broken play started by Callahan, Dubinsky slid the puck across to Kotalik who blasted a one-timer past Tuukka Rask for his first goal in 22 games. Right away, Versus captured our $3 million mess looking skyward thanking the heavens. Three years. Nine mill with a no-trade.

Up one, the Blueshirts got another man-advantage because Ally's PPG came on a delayed call. In typical fashion, they couldn't build off it allowing the Bruins to win every battle that included a couple of shorthanded bids. Kotalik was also involved in a sloppy change that led to a bench minor for Boston's only PP of the period. The PK did a nice job but Henrik Lundqvist was called upon to make a couple of big saves to keep our team ahead after one.

In the second, a great Mike Del Zotto seam pass found Dubinsky, who one touched it to a cutting Erik Christensen, who broke in from the right side and slipped a one-handed backhand thru Rask's waffle for a two-goal lead at 7:34. Amazingly, the waiver wire pickup has all four of his points over the last three since being moved up by John Tortorella to the top line. Same guy who was getting mysteriously scratched in favor of Brian Boyle. Boyle was in the lineup as was $1.4 M waste of space Donald Brashear, who replaced Aaron Voros for some reason on the fourth line. Boyle actually had a chance but predictably took a weak backhand off a three-on-two that Rask easily ate up. He later did nice PK work on another Bruin power play with Gabby in the box for a bizarre high toss that went into the stands for delay of game.The Blueshirts played really well in front of Lundqvist, allowing him to see all 11 offerings while they sent 17 on Rask and made it more difficult.

"We played really well in all facets of the game,” a pleased Tortorella emphasized of an effort that saw his club block 24 shots, register 11 takeaways and 35 hits.

Distracted by the wrestling chaos, I didn't see a ton of the third but didn't miss much. The B's were still dead when Zdeno Chara went off for interference with under seven minutes to go. They only got five total shots. Unfortunately, the Ranger PP struck the wrong way, allowing the Bruins some life when Gaborik turned it over on the boards, leading to Hunwick's SHG. David Krejci outhustled our guys behind the net and worked it to Blake Wheeler, who then found Hunwick in the slot with his backhand whistling past a screened Lundqvist. Suddenly awaken, the B's took it to us. Even still 5-on-4, the doom and gloom could be felt through the TV. Eventually, Wheeler got the puck and blew one upstairs, stunning only the blatant homers. Somehow, they tied without point leader Patrice Bergeron, who left early in the second after taking a shot off his hand.

Nothing surprises me anymore. So, I didn't have any reaction and figured they'd lose. Only to my startling discovery when I flipped back, I saw Higgins actually smiling as the bench celebrated his first goal as a Ranger on Garden ice. The one time he scores, I miss it. Versus showed the replay after and he wrong footed Rask, who thought pass on a play Higgins snuck a backhand past the gifted Finnish rookie. Drury and Callahan assisted on the late goal with 89 seconds remaining. Claude Julien pulled Rask for an extra but it was obvious that the Rangers wouldn't allow them to tie doing a noble job defensively to earn the two points.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Blake Wheeler, Bos (goal/assist, 2 SOG, +2 in 16:33)
2nd Star-Brandon Dubinsky, NYR (2 assists, game best 5 SOG, 4 hits, takeaway, 2 blocked shots, 6-7 draws in 24:16)
1st Star-Christopher Higgins, NYR (GW w/1:29 left-1st goal on home ice, 3 SOG, takeaway/blocked shot, +1 in 16:34)