Bruins goalie Manny Fernandez in the locker room; a place he may wish he had stayed this afternoon
By Jim Chandley
The Bruins put forth a good team effort in New York this afternoon but came up short, falling 4-3 to the Rangers. Coach Claude Julien would probably tell you, (as he often does) that they lost as a team.
But this didn’t seem to be as much of a team loss as other recent defeats. “You can’t win with that,” commentator Mike Millbury said during today’s broadcast. He spoke almost accidentally and sounded rather harsh but clarified without sugar coating it, “You can not win with goal tending like Manny Fernandez has given the Bruins here today.”
Indeed, Fernandez gave up some soft goals in today’s contest. When the Rangers drew first blood early in the 2nd, they did so on a legitimate goal by Nik Antropov. Kobasew scored two minutes later and one could argue that the Rangers should never have seen the lead again.
Later in the period, on the powerplay, Scott Gomez found the back of the net on a wrap-around shot where Fernandez didn’t cover the entire post and let the puck sneak inside his skate. Minutes later, Fernandez stood up when a shot was blocked in front of him. He spun 360 degrees in the crease looking for the puck while Ryan Callahan was busy finding it and burying it.
Chara andRyder would both score early in the 3rd, clearing the way for Fernandez to leave his mistakes in the past. Unfortunately, it was not Fernandez’s day. With six minutes left in the game, Fernandez lost sight of a rebound andcame out entirely too far to the right slot. The rebound had in fact gone to the left and Nikolai Zherdev put it away for what would be the game winner.
It was a tough break for the team that Fernandez had such a bad day today. The skaters came out with some fire, hitting hard and taking part in a few scraps along the way. They put plenty of pressure on New York’s Henrik Lundquist. But the miscues in goal were too much to overcome. The B’s will try again Tuesday at the Columbus Blue Jackets.
