INSIDE HOCKEY

NEW YORK – During the 1952-1953 hockey season, the United Nations moved into its current facility, the NSA and World Wrestling Federation were both founded, Dwight Eisenhower was elected President, the first 3-D film opened, the DNA molecule was discovered, and Harry Howell and Andy Bathgate started their NHL careers with the New York Rangers.

Those may have been different times in America, but one thing remains constant: both Howell and Bathgate were instrumental members of the Rangers during the Original Six years, and were monumental parts of a Rangers team on the rise in the 1950’s and 60’s. Tonight, though, the Rangers continued their free-fall, losing for the 10th time in 12 games (2-7-3) to Toronto (22-26-12) 3-2 in overtime.

“This night was very, very special for me and my family,” Howell said at a press conference during the first intermission. “I can understand why people get emotional. I wasn’t that much of an emotional player, but I was tonight.”

“Tonight was a culmination of my career,” Bathgate said. “It can’t get any better than this.”

Near the end of the on-ice pre-game ceremony, Michael Rozsival presented his No. 3 jersey to Howell, and showed the Hall-of-Famer his new number: 33.

“I said ‘Well thank you very much’, and I asked him ‘what number are you taking,’” Howell said. “So he turned around and showed me his No. 33. He was really very pleasant about it.”

“It’s another night where we can take a look back at the history of this organization and take some inspiration from it,” Renney said before the game. “They’re Rangers and so are we. That’s all you have to know. If you can’t identify with that, you should have a look at ping-pong.”

Before the game, Renney said his team has been playing with “trepidation” over the last few days. The Rangers (31-23-7) didn’t look like it early, outshooting the Maple Leafs 7-2 in the first eight minutes while exhibiting a consistent fore-check and solid offensive pressure. Still, through one period, they couldn’t solve Vesa Toskala (39 saves), who shut the team out here at MSG on October 17 (1-0 Rangers win in a shootout).

“I thought we had a good start. The first ten minutes were solid then somehow we sort of leveled off,” Renney said. “In the second period we went after them; just a function of continuing to work hard and identifying certain parts of our game that can give us some things to build upon.”

“We need to make sure we follow the plan, and not deviate too much from it,” Brandon Dubinsky said. “That’s the way we’re going to win.”

In the second stanza, the Rangers turned up the heat on Toskala, only to watch the net-minder stop all 19 shots they threw on his cage. While Lundqvist (23 saves) saw only five shots in the period, he showed frustration late in the period after the Rangers anemic power-play went scoreless again by shaking his head and slamming his water bottle on the top of his net.

“It doesn’t matter the score, we just need some wins, some laughter,” Lundqvist said. “When you’re not winning, it’s tough. It’s tough mentally, and you work so hard to try to get the two points because we need it. It’s really tough when you’re not getting the result you’re looking for.”

Things opened up in the third period, as the teams combined for three goals in 2:24 of the first 6:18. It started at 3:54 when John Mitchell stopped a Pavel Kubina shot from the point, took the puck and backhanded it past a sprawled-out Lundqvist.

The Rangers answered back on a breakout spearheaded by Rozsival and Brandon Dubinsky. The Alaskan native sent a pass from center ice to Scott Gomez, who streaked in from the blue line and backhanded a low drive past Toskala to even the contest at 5:53.

“We were on our toes more tonight,” captain Chris Drury said. “You get that many chances, especially in the second and third, hopefully at some point here we get bounces.”

But for the Rangers in February, success has been short-lived. The unfortunate theme continued tonight when Ian White skated from the blue line to the slot unmolested to give Toronto the lead just 25 seconds after Gomez tied it.

“Everybody’s trying really hard right now to help the team do the right things,” Lundqvist said. “That’s not the only thing. Everybody wants it so bad. That’s what happens when you’re going through a tough stretch.”

The Rangers nearly hamstrung themselves by taking their second too-many-men penalty of the game – ninth of the season – with 4:12 left. After the team successfully killed the ensuing Toronto power play, former Ranger Dominic Moore took a costly holding-the-stick penalty, allowing the Rangers a 90 second man advantage.

As that was coming to an end, Ryan Callahan’s shot was padded away by Toskala, but it came to Rozsival’s stick after trickling off Dubinsky’s lumber. No. 33 wristed the rebound home, tying the game with 39.1 seconds remaining in regulation, and sending a Rangers game to overtime for the 19th time this season.

But in overtime, it was the Rangers turn to take a costly penalty. After Blair Betts took a hooking penalty, Niklas Hagman deflected Pavel Kubina’s point shot past Lundqvist with two minutes left in the extra session to send the crowd home angry.

“I knew I was in trouble,” Lundqvist said. “[Hagman] deflected it, and it just went in. Tough loss, we definitely did enough things to win this hockey game. But again, it’s coming down to scoring goals, and we don’t have anybody else to blame but ourselves.”

“We don’t have to look too far. We look back 12 games and we can see what kind of season we had. It’s not like we’re on a 35 game losing streak,” Dubinsky said. “No doubt about it, it’s been a tough stretch and we have to find a way to win, but we just have to stick with it, stick with Tom’s plan, come to work every day and make sure we’re bringing our “A” effort and find a way to execute.”

While the fans at MSG never chanted for his ouster, there has been significant talk about Renney’s job security in recent days. Dubinsky said such talk should disappear – he believes Renney is the right man for the job.

“There’s a reason Tom was hired after the Rangers missed the playoffs for seven straight years,” Dubinsky said. “He’s a smart guy, and the right guy for the job. He cares just as bad as any one of us, so we have to make sure we’re sticking by him and pulling out of this.”

“All our guys are here, focused, working extremely hard on and off the ice, and looking to get wins,” Drury said. “Hopefully we can go to Toronto [Wednesday] and get three out of four.”

RANGERS NOTES

Toronto is now 4-12 in games lasting over 60 minutes.

Gomez extended his scoring streak to four games (2-2-4).

The Rangers move into a tie for 5th place with Montreal (69 points), but are only two points ahead of 9th place Carolina.

The power-play goal is the first allowed by the Rangers at home since January 20 (20-21 in six games).