from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The Canadiens will scratch and claw and do whatever else is necessary to extend this series during which they have led for a sum of 2:50 of the 244:46 the clubs have been on the ice. But now is the time for the Rangers to drop the hammer on this Montreal squad that doesn’t seem to have the requisite weapons to advance.

Fans of a certain vintage who cringe at the memory of roadrunner Yvan Cournoyer torching the Blueshirts at the old Forum will recognize and delight in the irony that the faster, better ice in Montreal should prove beneficial to the Rangers, whose up-tempo game was muffled on the Garden rink on which the puck took more bad hops than the World Series grounder that hit Tony Kubek in the throat.

The Rangers want pace; they live on it. Carl Hagelin, the latter day descendent of Roadrunner Cournoyer, has emerged as a force against Montreal, all flash and dash and if only that long blonde hair were free to wave in the breeze the way that Gene Carr’s did so many years ago.

The better ice should benefit all of the Rangers, who seemed frustrated — but not defeated — by all of the bounces of pucks left in front of the net by goaltender Dustin Tokarski, whose aggressive style has at times flummoxed opposing shooters. In Game 3, how many times were the Rangers in alone, only to see the puck roll at the last moment? Rick Nash, who scored in each of the first two matches in Montreal, seemed particularly cursed at home.

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