The story of the night is Stephen Valiquette. Big Steve came up huge tonight as Renney rested Henke and gave Valley his first game of the season. Talk about being clutch. Valiquette was showcased in what has to be one of the most visible games of this Ranger season. Not only was it Hockey Night in Canada, it was in Toronto. And, it was the Hall of Fame Game. It ended in a shootout where Valiquette stopped the first two Leaf shooters to bag the two points.

Several other Rangers had big nights. Sean Avery set the tone in the warm up where he got worked over by Darcy Tucker and his stick in a pregame altercation. Of course, the officials couldn’t penalize Tucker because the game hadn’t even started. Too bad that trend continued into the game.

Sean Avery had another monster game. He assisted on Shanahan’s goal by going backdoor on Toskola and dishing to Shanny from behind the net. (a textbook Red Wing Play). He landed a vicious uppercut to Tucker’s mush in their fight for which they both got five for fighting. (Note to Gomez, if you are going to take a stupid retalitory penalty on Toskola, make sure he gets one too.) Turn about being fairplay, Avery scored on an assist from Shanahan. Okay, so it was an assist, a fight and a goal. Any way you slice it, it’s a Gordie Howe Hatrick.

The aforementioned Gomez penalty turned the game around for Toronto. How could an experienced veteran like Gomez take a penalty like that? After this game, it should be clear to all Ranger players that the Canadian team in a HNIC game will always get the benefit on calls. A Toronto player could have decapitated any Ranger tonight and still not have gotten called. There was a 20 second interval where Jagr was being held and hooked by Stajan that was so blatant, the referee grudgingly had to make the call or it would have looked really bad for these officials.

So, inspite of officials efforts to decide this match, the Rangers finally won their first road game of the season. If you are wondering if there will be any punitive action taken by the league’s Office of Officiating against Darcy Tucker for his pregame stick work, don’t hold your breath.

Also, my stars of this game for the Rangers were Avery, Valiquette and Shanahan. It was nice that they gave first star to Shanny as he was in his hometown in front of his family and friends. He was clutch in the shoot out and he had a goal and an assist in regulation. Still, I would have given it to Avery.

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