The New York Rangers withstood early pressure from the Montreal Canadiens and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was on top of his game

The New York Rangers withstood early pressure from the Montreal Canadiens and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was on top of his game as the New York Rangers took Game Two with a 3-1 win. Basketball Shoes Cheap Australia . Before the game started, the Canadiens had announced that G Carey Price would be out for the series, with a knee injury suffered in a collision with Rangers LW Chris Kreider, and head coach Michel Therrien made the decision to go with Dustin Tokarski in Prices place. Tokarski, 24, has posted a .921 save percentage in 56 games with Hamilton of the AHL since he was acquired from Tampa Bay last year, and stopped 88 of 93 shots (.946 SV%) in three games with the Canadiens this year, but Tokarski has also started 10 NHL games in his career, so the decision came with a certain amount of risk. Montreal opened the game asserting territorial control, with 24 of the first 34 unblocked shot attempts in the game. Habs LW Max Pacioretty got the Canadiens on the board first, 6:14 into the game, with his third goal in the past four games. At that point, the Canadiens were looking good. Only 17 seconds later, Rangers D Ryan McDonagh scored on a shot that deflected off D Josh Gorges and past Tokarski. McDonagh added an assist later, giving him six points in the first two games of the series. As the first period neared a close, the Rangers looked like they might be able to escape with a tie score despite getting the wrong end of the puck possession game, but then circumstances got even better for the Blueshirts. A quick-break three-on-two, following a defensive zone face-off, resulted in a goal for Rick Nash, the second straight game in which he has scored. Tokarski could have come across the crease quicker, perhaps but, even so, Nashs one-time snap shot was stoppable. It was the kind of goal for which Tokarski shouldnt really be blamed -- he didnt give up the three-on-two break -- but, especially in the playoffs, it was the kind of goal that comes under more scrutiny. So the Canadiens, who might have been somewhat frustrated to end the first frame tied despite dominating play, werent even tied, they were down by a goal. Then, 8:03 into the second period, Rangers RW Martin St. Louis scored a power goal, with a rocket shot inside the post, and the Canadiens climb got much steeper. Montreal was stifled for much of the rest of the game, with a few surges, particularly on a power play, with Tokarski pulled, in the last four minutes, but Lundqvist was there to turn back any Habs attempts. In his last five games, Lundqvist has stopped 162 of 168 shpts (.964 SV%) and, over the past three seasons, has a .933 save percentage in the playoffs. Not exactly an easy head-to-head matchup for Tokarski to win. The Canadiens got LW Alex Galchenyuk back in the lineup -- his first game since suffering a knee injury April 9 against Chicago -- and the line of Brendan Gallagher, David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty was on for more than 86% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts when they were on the ice. D P.K. Subban had 18 shot attempts (nine on net, six blocked, three missed the net) and Gallagher had 13 attempts. More problematic for the Canadiens is that Thomas Vanek didnt register a shot on goal. In the past seven games, Vanek has registered either one or zero shots in six of them. Its not as if the Canadiens have altogether no hope, but its not an easy task to come back from a two-games-to-none series deficit, and doing so with questions in goal makes that scenario all the less likely. They will need a dramatically different performance in New York if they are going to reverse the path which is currently leading them to the offseason in short order. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Cheap Basketball Shoes Australia . Torres calmly stroked a 51st-minute spot kick down the middle with goalkeeper Romel Quinonez diving right to convert a penalty earned by Javi Martinez. Spain controlled play at the Sanchez Pizjuan but found it hard to convert against a well-organized Bolivian team before Iniesta charged forward to curl around Quinonez in the 84th to seal victory. Cheap Authentic Basketball Shoes . Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Raptors have traded forward Steve Novak along with a second-round pick to the Utah Jazz in exchange for guard Diante Garrett - who will then be waived. http://www.cheapbasketballshoesaustralia.com/ . It was just time for him to make a big play. Nicolas Batum had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Wesley Matthews scored 18 points, and the Trail Blazers overcame poor-shooting nights by two of their best players in a 94-90 victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday.CALGARY -- Weeks of frustration on home ice finally came to a merciful end Wednesday night for the Calgary Flames. Sean Monahan continued his impressive rookie season, scoring his team-leading 14th goal as Calgary snapped its record seven-game losing streak at the Scotiabank Saddledome with a 3-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes. "We have great fans so we want to play hard for them and win games for them," said Monahan. "Together as a group, we know we can be better than we were and thats what were working towards." Monahan opened the scoring at 11:44 of the first period. It was the first time in nine home games Calgary had struck first. In fact, the Flames hadnt held the lead in a home game since Dec. 12, the day general manager Jay Feaster was fired. "It was nice to get one early and we started to build off that," said Monahan, 19, who moved ahead of Mike Cammalleri and Jiri Hudler for the team lead in goals. "It was a big moment in the game for us and that helped us carry momentum throughout the game." The goal was set up by TJ Galiardis hustle. After winning a race to the puck deep in the Coyotes zone, Galiardi promptly zipped the puck in front where Monahan tapped it in behind goaltender Mike Smith, firing up the sell-out crowd of 19,289. "A pretty incredible play. He showed his speed to get to the puck and win that race. It was an unbelievable pass to get it over and lucky enough, I finished it," said Monahan, who is third in rookie goals behind Colorados Nathan MacKinnon (17) and San Joses Tomas Hertl (15). Calgary never relinquished that lead thanks partly to Karri Ramo, who finished the night with 30 saves to improve to 9-10-4. The 27-year-old Finn was especially sharp in the opening 20 minutes when Phoenix outshot the Flames 11-6 but trailed 1-0. He was counted on again in the third and in the final minute in particular when the Coyotes pulled Smith for an extra attacker and poured on the pressure. "Weve faced some tough times. But the last few home games, weve been playing really good too, especially against Pittsburgh we played really good and we havent got the reward," Ramo said. "We deserved to win today." Lance Bouma and Matt Stajan also scored for Calgary (17-27-7), which scored more than two goals for just the second time since Christmas. The Flames had been outscored 22-4 during its seven-game home losing streak. "Wee can take a lot defensively from this game, especially with their D that are so active," Stajan said. Basketball Shoe Clearance Australia. "We have four more games here at home and we want to make sure we keep at it." Kicking off a five-game homestand, Calgary will try to make it two wins in a row Friday night against Nashville. Antoine Vermette and Shane Doan scored for Phoenix (23-18-9), which has dropped eight of its last 11. The Coyotes remain four points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. "Its challenging but the guys that have been around long enough in this league know that youre gong to hit those stretches in a season. Its how you manage to get out of it," says Vermette. Winless in its last five games away from home, Phoenixs three-game road trip to Western Canada continues Friday night in Edmonton. "Sometimes its tempting to get frustrated and fall into that trap. But if you do the right thing over a long period of time, eventually its going to turn your way," Vermette said. The Flames surged in front 2-0 at 8:48 of the second period on a perfectly executed fast break. Curling out from behind his own net, TJ Brodie threaded a long pass to Bouma at the Phoenix blue-line. In behind the Coyotes defence, Bouma darted in and snapped a perfect shot into the top corner. Vermette cut the lead to 2-1 on a short-handed goal less than five minutes later but Stajan restored the two-goal cushion before the period ended . "Weve been down lately in a lot of games and weve got to be better," said Doan, who got Phoenix back within one at 6:50 of the third. "If you look at our record, weve been average if that and weve got a lot better team than an average team." Smith, who had 23 saves, falls to 17-15-8. Notes: Flames LW Mike Cammalleri (concussion) missed his sixth game. Also not dressed for Calgary was LW Paul Byron (foot)... Missing for Phoenix was C Martin Hanzal (lower body), who missed his second game and D David Schlemko (upper body). Both are day-to-day... Calgarys only two regulation wins in the last 21 home games have come against the Coyotes. They also beat Phoenix 4-1 on Dec. 4... After 48 games without one, the Coyotes have short-handed goals in two consecutive games... With Henrik Sedins streak ending, Vermette (361) and D Keith Yandle (353) now have the third and fourth longest active iron-man streaks in the NHL. ' ' '