Welcome to Crunch Time

It is a Saturday night late in the season so for New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects now we see who is going to pick up their team and carry them. If you like pressure packed games then this is your time of the season as now every win or loss has an impact.

If you have been a long time reader of this place then you know all about Ranger prospect Carl Hagelin (2007 6th) who for the last 4 years has turned this time of the season into his time. Every time we think that Hagelin has done the big time play that Hagelin pulls an even bigger effort out of his bag of tricks.

It was Senior Night at Yost Arena home of the 11th ranked Michigan Wolverine and Carl Hagelin made sure they would remember his name for a very long time. The love affair between Hagelin and the Wolverine faithful has been special over the years from waving the flags of Sweden to the chants of Hagelin's name.

Poor Max Campbell (2007 5th) and his Western Michigan Broncos as they became the latest victims of Carl Hagelin. Western Michigan was in the last minute of regulation trying to hold onto a 4-3 lead as Michigan pulled their goalie for the extra attacker.

Hagelin picked up the puck, crossed into the offensive zone and fired on that trickled through the 5 hole for the tying goal. Goal number 14 for Hagelin came with just 39.1 seconds and it sent the game into overtime.

Michigan has been the only team in the CCHA not to have played in a shootout this season and once again Hagelin as he has done for 4 years scored the big goals. With just 12 seconds remaining in the overtime, Michigan got the puck out of their defensive zone with Lee Moffie carrying the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone.

Hagelin was trailing the play so as Moffie entered the zone, he dropped the puck off to Hagelin who set up the WMU defender to be a screen then fired the puck over the blocker and in with just 2.9 seconds remaining and a 5-4 Michigan win.

Hagelin is on a 4 game run where he is 2-5-7 as Michigan heads into the final weekend of their CCHA regular season guaranteed of no worse than second place in the CCHA. Michigan trails Notre Dame by 1 point with 2 games to go.

You really got to see the highlights of this one courtesy of GoBigBlue.com

The Ranger report is right here

Once upon a time, we made a deliberate choice to avoid attending Portland Winterhawk games. They was being run into the ground by an extremely bad ownership group that sucked the life out of a very proud franchise. Portland Oregon has a long and storied history in ice hockey that dates all the way back to 1914.

Current Rangers Brandon Dubinsky and Michael Sauer were Winterhawks and for the Islanders it is Nino Niederreiter the 5th pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. It was only fitting that "El Nino" played his best game of the season on the night that the Winterhawks clinched their spot in the WHL playoffs.

In front of  10,145 who were attending "Pink The Rink" night in Portland, First Star of the game Nino Niederreiter registered a 4 point night including his first hat trick of the season as the Winterhawks fired an unbelievable 61 shots in a 6-3 win over the Chilliwack Bruins.

For Niederreiter, it is not hard to think he would rather be playing for the Islanders this season but he has made the best of the situation with a 27-20-47 +16 in 41 games. It may not seem like much but Niederreiter missed 17 Winterhawk games between his time with the Islanders and playing for his native Switzerland in the World Under 20 championships.

With 14 games remaining it is possible that Niederreiter could top the 36 goals he scored last season in 65 games. But next season maybe Niederreiter brings along coaches Mike Johnson and Travis Green to run the Islanders as both are deserving of NHL coaching jobs.

It was a pretty good night for the Islander prospects starting right here.

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I never have said no to anyone asking me if they could link my work at their website. I have never ever turned down a request to share information and I hope I never am put into a position where I am force to.

I am always open to support anyone who is starting a blog or website because that is how I got started.

What I will not stand for is someone basically stealing the content of this blog and those of who I call friends for their own use and failing to properly give credit. By that I mean if I use something from the Ranger's Tribune I am going make sure that Nick who did the work gets his rightful credit.

Yesterday I discovered that a website called NewYorkRangersFansite has been posting my blog without my knowledge or consent. They put a line where it says "Blog Credit" but do not mention either my name, the name of this blog and it is at the bottom of the page after one has read it.

They use this blog and have ads on their website so as far as I am concerned you are stealing from me and my friends. We put in the work, we take the time to gather up all that we can and you come along sell advertising on those pages. 

So either offer to pay a share of the advertising revenue you make with me (my work I expect a 50/50 cut) or cease using my blog. 

(Hagelin/GoBigBlue.com, Niederreiter/Portland Winterhawks)