NEW YORK – When Brent Burns cut the Rangers’ lead to 3-2 midway through the third period, the opportunity was there for San Jose – which hadn’t played all that well to that point – to try and steal one or maybe even two points against New York.
Instead, they fell asleep. Kevin Hayes got behind Burns three minutes later and tapped in a dish from Jesper Fast, and on the next shift Chris Tierney was forced into a turnover in the defensive zone and Justin Braun was caught in no man’s land in front of the net as Jimmy Vesey put the blueshirts up, 5-2.