Rangers stay hot on the Road, Win in St. Louis
As the calendar has turned to 2011 the New York Rangers have continued to play well, especially on the road. On Saturday night the Rangers traveled to St. Louis and came out on top 2-1. Once again the key player for the Rangers was backup goaltender Marty Biron. In ten games this year Biron is now 7-3 with a 2.26 GAA. The Rangers already have one of the better goaltenders in net with Hendrik Lundqvist, but to add a backup who is playing so well is helping propel the Rangers back towards a playoff birth.
With this win the Rangers moved to 7 games over 500. and to 53 points, good for sixth in the east. The strange part of the record is, the Rangers are actually a 500 team at home, but on the road are seven games over five hundred. Much like their Garden counterpart early season success on the road has helped them moved into a steady playoff position. Now as we move towards the halfway point of the season, the Rangers must reassert themselves at home. While winning on the road is great, it is unlikely the Rangers will keep up this pace the rest of the year, especially against the leagues best. So instead the Rangers must look to improve on the home record or else the feared ninth spot in the east will creep up on them quickly.
Either way, right now its hard not to feel good about the Rangers. They are a young team who battles game in, game out. The Rangers rank in the top ten in the league in scoring and scoring defense, which is always a good stat indicating a solid balance to the team. With Marty Biron playing so well, and Lundqvist overcoming a slow start to play his best of the season, there is no reason to believe the Rangers will relent from this momentum.
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