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Rangers leapfrog Lightning
By Times Wires
Published March 26, 2007
UNIONDALE, N.Y. - Chris Simon had no more impact on the latest Rangers-Islanders matchup than any other spectator at sold-out Nassau Coliseum.
Simon was in the building for the first meeting between the rivals since his two-handed stick attack against the Rangers' Ryan Hollweg, but he could only watch his Islander teammates lose in overtime Sunday.
"Obviously, it's a very intense rivalry, but I don't think by any means the Chris Simon incident was a part of this," Islanders forward Ryan Smyth said.
Michael Nylander deflected in Brendan Shanahan's shot with 48.9 seconds left in overtime to give the Rangers their fifth straight win.
The win moved the Rangers one point ahead of the Lightning for sixth in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders earned a point to forge a three-way tie for eighth with the Canadiens and Hurricanes. However, their three fewer wins than the Canadiens and two fewer than the Hurricanes leave them 10th, two points ahead of the Maple Leafs.
The Rangers scored the deciding power-play goal in the March 8 victory after Simon struck Hollweg with a swinging stick to the upper body that caused a cut on Hollweg's chin. Simon tried to meet Hollweg on Saturday night to apologize, but that wasn't possible because the Rangers had a team dinner after arriving on Long Island.
Sunday, Hollweg declined to see Simon, who is eight games into his 25-game suspension.
"There is no Simon-Hollweg thing. None," said Shanahan, injured for the two previous Islanders meetings. "The games are too important, and that business has taken care of itself. It wasn't talked about in this dressing room, and I can guarantee it wasn't talked about in their dressing room. It's about getting points."
Colton Orr scored with 9:23 left in the second for the Rangers.
Alexei Yashin scored in the waning seconds of the Islanders' eighth power play 7:37 into the third.
In overtime, the Rangers went on the power play with 1:13 left when Sean Hill hooked Jaromir Jagr.
Then Nylander planted himself in front of Rick DiPietro and knocked the puck in. Hill jawed at the officials when he came out of the box.
"I wouldn't want to be in that position to decide the game," Hill said. "I felt like I got my stick in the right place and let go of it."
[Last modified March 26, 2007, 07:33:44]
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