The Rangers swept their Florida road trip, winning both games in overtime, the latest coming last night with a 5-4 win over the Panthers. New York is slowly finding their game. The Rangers have now earned a win in each of their last three games, in four of their last five games (4-1-0), and in five of their last seven games (5-2-0) while also garnering points in seven of their last nine contests (5-2-2).
Game recap:
MSG Post-game:
New York's lineup was just about the same as the win over the Lightning. The only difference was Paul Carey centered the fourth line with Boo Nieves out with the flu. Brendan Smith was scratched for the second straight game, meaning Nick Holden (paired with Ryan McDonagh) and Steven Kampfer (paired with Marc Staal) were both active.
The contest was extremely wide open, especially in the first period, but both goalies - Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo - were on their game. In the second, a pair of scrambly goals were scored by Colton Sceviour, each set up by turnovers, first by Michael Grabner and the second by Kevin Shattenkirk. But Nick Holden blasted his first of the season, created by Jesper Fast having tremendous patience waiting for his teammates to gain the zone, and then Shattenkirk netted his first of the game late in the frame.
In the third, New York took a 3-2 lead after a brilliant play by Fast to steal the puck and dish a lollipop pass to Grabner all alone in front of Luongo. But Mika Zibanejad was tossed from the faceoff dot replaced by Pavel Buchnevich, and since New York already had a faceoff violation penalty on Chris Kreider earlier in the contest, Buch had to be careful not to be too aggressive. He was beaten cleanly by Aleksander Barkov, with the puck going back to the point. Keith Yandle's shot changed directions on the way in, beating Lundqvist high on a shot he might like to have another chance to stop.
New York wasn't deterred and Rick Nash, who was strong again throughout, tipped McDonagh's point shot past Luongo for a 4-3 lead. Florida pulled their goalie and Vincent Trocheck beat Lundqvist high to the short side with 1:56 remaining to tie it. Hank was brilliant at several moments in the game, but there, he needs to be a big higher in the crease, cutting down the angle more. Off to overtime.
In the extra frame, a great read by J.T. Miller, who may have had his best game of the season and has picked up his play lately as well, to find Nash in open ice, creating a 2-on-1 break. Nash waited and found Shattenkirk, who beat Luongo for the game-winner with his second of the game. After a horrific start to the season, 1-5, the Rangers are now 6-7-2 and working their back into early playoff contention and up the standings of the Metro Division. A contest against the division leading Blue Jackets looms on Monday.
Far from a perfect game, the contest was certainly entertaining. Lots of positives to take from the win. Miller, Nash, Fast, Grabner and Shattenkirk just to name a few. Overall, I thought the team played fairly well, despite some bobbles during the game. New York for the most part limited Florida's good chances, and despite allowing four goals, Lundqvist was solid between the pipes, making several tremendous saves. The end result was the team's third straight victory.
New York is in the midst of one of the tougher stretches of their schedule. The comeback win over Las Vegas, strong team performance in victory over Tampa and resiliency versus Florida last night have gotten it off to a good beginning. It gets no easier this week with home games against Columbus (Monday), Boston (Wednesday) and Edmonton (Saturday) and then it’s road contests versus Chicago and Columbus. More is still needed but it sure looks they are rounding into form.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»