MAY 11, 2012
The Jewish Voice
SPORTS
PAGE 43
Playoffs Continue to Heat up in NYC In this week’s edition we get back into the playoff action lives of the Knicks and Rangers on their respective journeys to a title. The Knicks head home desperately looking for a win after losing the first two games in Miami, while the Rangers head to Washington after splitting first two contests at Madison Square Garden. see-saw battle throughBy Aron Nafisi, RT fter the K nicks got blo wn out b y the Heat in the series opener , game t wo wasn’t nec essarily one t o wat ch either as N Y shot just 32% and f ell t o Miami 104-94. The K nicks headed home in a must win situation t o pr event going down 0-3 in the series t o the Heat. K nicks super star Amar ’e Stoudemire was unavailable for game three after sustaining a hand injury after punching a fir e extinguisher in the game t wo loss in M iami. G ame thr ee was tied at 19 after the first quarter, and the Heat were up b y 2 points af ter three periods. But Miami just proved to be too much for the K nicks b y out-sc oring N Y 29-14 in the final period and cruising t o an 87-70 victory. The loss ga ve M iami a c ommanding 3-0 lead, and stamped the Knicks in the record books as they set an NBA mark with their 13th straight playoff loss. The Knicks came int o game f our down 0-3 in the series and k nowing v ery w ell that no team in NBA history has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a series. The Knicks got some great news before tipoff as Stoudremire announced that he will give it a go in game four. As for the game, it was a
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out, the game sa w 12 lead changes and 11 ties. E very quar ter was tight, ev ery pla y was crucial, and ev ery possession was critical . But at the end , the K nicks showed they w eren’t ready for summer vacation yet as NY’s other superstar Carmelo Anthony came up huge, exploding f or 41 points . The K nicks t wo superstars c ombined for 61 points t o propel the K nicks t o a 89-87 win, as D wayne Wade’s pot ential series winning 3 point er at the buzzer was just short. The other G arden tenant the N Y Rangers, ar e mak ing some serious noise during their 2012 pla yoff run. N Y which had locked up the number one seed in the east, but needed sev en games t o get past the Senators in round one. After winning game seven of the first round, the Rangers set up a dat e with the hot Washington C apitals who had just k nocked off the def ending champion Bost on Bruins in sev en games themselves. The Two t eams split the first two games of the series at Madison Square Garden. Game three turned out t o be one for the ages , as it needed thr ee overtime’s
Things are really heating up at Madison Square Garden, as the Rangers are just one win away from the conference finals, and the Knicks came back in game four of their series with a nail-biting 89-87 win.
to decide the out come. The winning goal was scored by Marian Gaborik at 12:14 am the nex t morning t o end the triple o vertime thriller and g ive the Rangers a 2-1 se ries lead. Game f our was another close one as both t eams w ent back and f orth trading goals. The C apitals sc ored first when their super star Alex O vechkin f ound the back of the net midwa y through the first period on a slap shot for a 1-0 lead. The Blue Shirts struck back t o star t the sec ond period when Artem Anisimov’s wrist shot tied the game just 70 sec onds in. Just t en minutes later, the C apitals N icklas Backstr om ga ve
Washington the lead with his sec ond goal of the pla yoffs. But the R angers answ ered back, with less than f our minut es r emaining in the second period when game three star M arian G aborik lit up the lamp t o tie the game. The third period was a tight one as the crowd sensed another possible overtime in this thrilling series . But with about six minut es lef t, the C apitals’ M ike Gr een snuck one past R angers superstar goalies Henrik Lundqvist to give Washington a 3-2 lead which turned out t o be the decisiv e game winner. With the series all k notted up at t wo, a crucial game fiv e was on tap at M adison Square Garden on Monday night and it was a close one . The rangers came out firing away as Anton Stralman got the scoring going with a slap shot goal midwa y through the first period. The Rangers lead lasted till late in the second period when Brooks Laich of the Capitals scored to tie the game at 1-1 heading into the third period. Less than five minutes into the third period, Capitals player John Carlson struck on a power play goal to take a 2-1 lead. As the clock ticked away, the Garden crowd anticipated another de feat. But a miracle oc curred when R angers superstar Brad R ichard squeaked one past the C apitals goalie t o tie the game with just seven seconds remaining. In over time and with new lif e, M arc Staal slapped in a power play goal just 90 seconds in the extra period for the win. The Rangers pulled out a miracle , the cr owd w ent wild , and N Y is now one win a way from advancing t o the conference finals!