The Rangers won their second straight shootout in back-to-back night's, defeating the Devils 3-2 on Sunday. Henrik Lundqvist continued his stretch of hit play since returning from his four-game respite, stopping 29 shots and 3-of-4 in the shootout. In his past three games, Lundqvist has saved 87-of-90 shots against, looking like the All-World goalie of the past.
With the victory, the Rangers have won six of seven. With Sunday's game, New York played for the fifth time in eight days and 7th time in 11 days. Despite the hot streak, the Rangers haven't been able to create any breathing room or space in the Metropolitan Division standings. That's because most of the division, save for Islanders and Devils, each of whom are struggling, is on fire lately as well.
To give you a sense just how hot certain teams have been and how tight the division is, take a look:
Pittsburgh 7-1-2 (Rangers face the Penguins on Tuesday) Columbus 10-0-1 Philly 9-1-0Rangers 23-10-1 - 47 points Pittsburgh 20-7-5 - 45 points (two fewer games) Columbus 20-5-4 - 44 points (five fewer games) Washington 19-8-3 - 41 points (four fewer games) Philadelphia 19-11-3 - 41 points (one fewer game)
New York started the game with the same lines as Saturday. Meaning Matt Puempel was in and Brandon Pirri was out. What started the game didn't end it, as coach Alain Vigneault was forced to juggle the trios to generate offense.
Kreider-Stepan-Zuccarello Vesey-Hayes-Nash Miller-Lindberg-Fast Grabner-Hrivik-Puempel
Early in the second period, Vigneault swapped Vesey and Miller on their lines, putting Vesey with Lindberg and Fast, while Miller went with Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash. AV also buried Vesey on the bench for a while, but did turn to him in the shootout. After tallying in Nashville in the skills competition, Vesey was unable to beat Cory Schneider and also hit the post in the second. Personally, I don't have a problem with the change AV made, but I would move Grabner up and Fast if making a change. But the Miller-Lindberg-Fast line has been awfully solid lately, showing chemistry, which has been lacking in the other trios.
New York sleepwalked the first 40 minutes and were fortunate to only be down 1-0. Their propensity for taking penalties finally came back to haunt them, as P.A. Parenteau continued his strong play against his former team, tallying on the man advantage. The Rangers cycled the puck beautifully and were rewarded on a great dish by Zuccarello in front to Kreider, who scored into the open side of the net to even the game at one just over eight minutes into the third.
New York kept up the pressure, forcing Schneider to make terrific consecutive saves on Brady Skjei and Hayes. Shortly thereafter, New Jerset regained the lead. Dan Girardi was slow in playing the puck, allowing Adam Henrique to take the puck away. Ryan McDonagh might have started to leak up ice, thinking G was in good position, allowing Miles Wood to be alone in front and give the Devils the lead again at 10:32.
The Rangers started to push again but were unable to get the equalizer. Following an icing and with the net empty, Stepan won the draw, the puck went back to McDonagh, whose brilliant pass/shot was redirected by Stepan from the left circle, beating Schneider’s glove to tie it, 2-2, and send the game to overtime. It was Stepan's, the Rangers' fans latest whipping boy, first goal in seven games.
The overtime was wide open hockey, with New Jersey getting the better chances. The Rangers best shots went wide of the net. New Jersey had several glorious chances, including one late when Wood was alone in front and Lundqvist made the save. After Zucc scored first in the shootout, Vesey had Schneider beat but couldn't score and Stepan hit the post, allowing Michael Cammalleri to tie it. Hayes tallied, Damon Severson was stoned and the Rangers got the win.
Some great stats from the post-game notes:
In their last 88 back-to-back sets (since the start of the 2010-11 season), the Rangers have posted a 59-23-6 record in the second game of the set. New York has posted a 6-0-0 record in the second game of a back-to-back set in 2016-17.The Rangers have allowed two goals or fewer in regulation/overtime in 24 of 34 games this season, including 11 of the last 13 games and each of the last seven contests. The Rangers have posted a 20-3-1 record in the 24 games which they have allowed two goals or fewer in 2016-17.
We all knew that the hot goalscoring start to the season was unsustainable. The starts bear that out. There was an average of 5.88 goals scored in the Blueshirts’ first 17 games with New York scoring four goals per contest. Over the 10, that dropped slightly to 5.5 per game. Due to the injuries, but more likely the opponents clogging the neutral zone and a regression back to the mean and center, the combined scoring has plummeted to 2.9 over these last seven matches. Fortunately, Antti Raanta (four starts) and Henrik Lundqvist (the last three) have surrendered two goals or fewer in each, allowing New York to win six of the seven.
With the win, Lundqvist tied Dominik Hasek for the most wins by a European-born goalie in NHL history, with each notching 389 victories. While Lundqvist, did get to 389 wins faster than Hasek, doing it in 709 games compared to Hasek's 735, he benefitted from 55 shootout victories while Hasek had just six. Hazel played the first 595 games of his NHL career before the shootout was adopted for the 2005-06 season, which is when Lundqvist's career began. Regardless a nice achievement for Lundqvist, who batting injury, should get win #400 early in 2017.