Gaborik Out For Reunion with Wild. Rangers Fall 3-2, October 30th '09

Game Highlights:

Dane Byers, recalled from Hartford to join PA Parenteau, scored his first NHL goal with another added by Marc Staal. However the Minnesota Wild switched to lock-down mode and sat on their lead through the third.

The frustrated Rangers played catch-up nearly the entire contest as Marian Gaborik sat with what was called lower-body soreness. The Rangers trailed 1-0, saw a tie game for 2:16 of the middle frame before the Wild netted two more, and could not equalize in the third. Another poor 2nd period in which the Blueshirts were outscored has carried on a dismal theme for the middle frames of this season. Sean Avery and goal-less Chris Higgins also sat out with soreness.

* Wade Redden has been playing more and more methodically this season. Although #6 does have creative potential on the blue-line, his conservative play has been much less mistake-prone and the glaring scape-goat bulls-eye he played with in '08-09 is much less evident.

* Petr Sykora, who opened the scoring in the first and added a helper on the Wild's 2nd mark, along with Mikko Koivu's assists on Sykora's opener and the Wild's game-winner, were the 2-point scoring heroes for Minnesota.

* Kotalik, Dubinsky, Drury, and Callahan were all held without a point and 1 shot on goal each. When Coach Tortorella tells of 'not getting enough out of players we expect to score' - look at these four.

Although Marian Gaborik's status was questionable for the Rangers' 3-2 regulatsean avery, drury, cion loss to the Wild, there is less to be optimistic about as this game may serve as a marker for how New York performs on the road without #10 - outshot 32-20.

Vaclav Prospal, Dan Girardi, Chris Drury Post-Game:

John Tortorella Post-Game: