From: wilson@cs.ucf.edu (tom wilson)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Tampa takes a bite out of the "Big Apple" (i.e. Rangers)
Keywords: biased
Date: 10 Nov 92 04:02:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Nov10.040246.24326
Organization: University of Central Florida, Orlando

I had mixed emotions as Tampa took on the Rangers since I've been a Rangers
fan long before the recent expansion came about. I expected the Rangers to be
ready for Tampa since they've seen the damage Tampa has done.

Well, it turned out that the game was close early and a blow out FOR Tampa by
the end. Tampa scratched Drulia just before the game and opted for an extra
defenseman. Hamrlik who sat out against the Islanders would try to repeat the
performance of Crossman who exploded after sitting one game. Mr. Goals, Chris
Kontos led the league before the game in shooting percentage, scoring 14 goals
on just 36 shots. He increased that percentage again tonight.

In the first period, the Rangers had the better of the play. Jablonski made
a couple of key saves. Messier hit the outside of the post on another chance.
A little later, Tampa started getting their chances and Richter made a
phonemenal save. Tampa hit the post not long after that. Then at 14:11 Kontos
scored from Bradley and Bureau on an awesome one-two pass play. The Lightning
dominated most of the rest of the period and had the short-tempered fans
booing.

In the second period, the play was pretty even. The Rangers had the puck in
Tampa's end and gave the puck away right in front of the goal. It didn't look
like anything would happen the other way, but Tampa broke out of its zone
3v3. The two Tampa defenseman joined the rush while the Rangers lolligagged
getting back. Andersson dropped the puck to a trailing Hamrlik who skated in
from the blue line all the way to the hash-marks (and could have gone further)
where he wristed it by Richter. That was at 7:58 and the other assist went to
Cole. The announcers joked about Hamrlik repeated Crossman's performance, but
that was his lone highlight.

Domi tried to stir things up by fighting with Hartman. Each got 5-n-10, and
the Rangers were lucky not to get an instigating penalty. Since this happened
right off the face off, I imagine the ref heard them jawing and felt no one
really started it (I guess). The Rangers played a little better now. They got
a power play and Jablonski stoned Amonte on a quick (from about the slot) 1v0
break. Right after the power play ended, Tampa took another penalty. This
ended up sealing the game when Kontos scored short-handed from Creighton and
Beers at 17:04. It might not have put the Rangers away if they had converted
a mishap a little later. The ice was pretty bad at MSG as usual. A Tampa
defenseman fell and Weight skated in 1v0 on Jablonski, but Jabs came up huge
with the save. Players fell throughout the game, as this wasn't the only
incident.

In the third period, there were only short spurts of action as Tampa dumped
the puck out and NY had trouble gaining the zone. Zamuner scored from Tucker
(I think) about midway through the period to make it 4-0. At 14:13, Tampa made
it 5-0 on a goal by Andersson from (either) Tucker or Hartman and Hodge. The
Rangers got a power play and the fans chanted "defense" as the Rangers
struggled to score. They finally got a break as a shot was deflected wide of
the near post and bounce out by the goal on the far post. Turcotte banged in
the puck from a bad angle at 16:30 for a power-play goal from Leetch and
Graves.

That was the final score: 5-1. Jablonski lost his second bid for a shutout
late in the 3rd period (the other came with less than 30 seconds against
St. Louis). He has played well since Young's injury. There was talk of Littman
starting on Saturday. Not much went right for the Rangers. Messier played a
pretty good game. He hit the post, took several good shots, and made his
usual good passes. Leetch had some good rushes. I think he is hindered by the
bad ice at MSG. Neilson said between periods that they are shopping for another
offensive defenseman (I thought they have enough). He said that Tampa's
defensemen have 17 goals (18 now), while NY's have only 4.

I don't think NY took Tampa lightly. They had a 2-0 lead with 5 minutes left
in Boston and ended up with a 2-2 tie Saturday. I think this carried over to
tonight.

The three stars were Kontos, Andersson, and Jablonski. Tampa heads home for
5 in a row after going 2-0-1 on the road trip (3-0-1 in the last 4 games).

Tom

P.S. Paul, let me know what the Rangers' announcers had to say if you saw it.
The Rangers missed a big chance to make up ground.

P.P.S. Who woke up those Vulcan Canadiens? and why do they always play 4 or 5
more games than Boston at the beginning of every year?
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey