The Rangers rode strong goaltending, initial line changes and special teams to a 3-1 win in Game 3. All three decisions this round have gone to the home team, a pattern Carolina also followed in round one against Boston. New York has a chance to extend that mark and even the series Tuesday at MSG
Game recap:
A few thoughts:
1) Lineup: as mentioned by seemingly everyone, and referenced by coach Gerard Gallant in his pre-game press conference, lineup changes were made. Filip Chytil moved to the top line,Alexis Lafreniere to the second while Frank Vatrano and Andrew Copp moved to the third line alongside Kakko Kaapo.
Gallant explained the move as wanting Copp in the middle to take draws, though the Rangers were pretty bad between the dots again, winning just 41.3% of their faceoffs. In addition, this move rewarded Chytil for his fine play the first two games and overall playoffs and created a different look on the ice. Plus, Vatrano warranted the demotion as did Copp.
As Larry Brooks noted, the new-look top line was particularly effective despite the fact that Chytil, Kreider and Zibanejad only logged 2:06 of ice time together during the regular season, according to Natural Stat Trick. They doubled the Hurricanes shots, 10-5, in 6:55 together in the victory — and Chytil looked even more energetic than he’s already been lately with a top-six recognition. That newly constituted top line, which remained intact until the latter stages of the second period, had 12 shots on goal, far exceeding what we saw in game 2.
In the third period, the lines were returned to their original stage as New York protected the lead. I would expect for Game 4 that we say the revised lines, at least to start the game, given the success the top unit had. The other two lines had far less of an impact, but the balance - something Gallant wanted to see. - was evident in the win.
2) Special teams - After going 0-for-5 through the first two games, looking bad while doing do, the Rangers’ power-play finally broke through when Panarin sent a no-look cross-zone feed to Zibanejad in the first period to end the team’s scoring drought, which spanned 127:59 and dated back to the opening 20 minutes of Game 1. The Rangers did little of note on their other two power-play chances, but that one marker set the tone.
The penalty kill was a perfect three-for-three, enabling that one goal to be enough. New York, especially Tyler Motte, who needs to be re-signed, did a solid job on the PK. The big kill came in the last 33 seconds of the second period and first 1:27 of the third with Carolina down by one. Igor Shesterkin came up big when needed while the shorthanded units limited rebound chances, aided partially by the 17 blocked shots.
3) Shesterkin made 43 saves in a brilliant performance. I saw some comments that he wasn't heavily tested. Unsure what game they were watching, as several saves were in high-fander areas. Igor was beaten once on a Nino Niederreiter backhand; he likely should have saved , acknowledging that post-game. But beyond that one tally, he stood on his head when needed and enabled New York to preserve a one-goal lead the entire third period.
4) Kreider made it a 2-0 game six minutes into the middle frame after sniping one from the lower left circle as Tony DeAngelo lost his stick in front thanks to Zib lifting the twig. CK20 went wide side, top shelf to beat Antti Raanta, who had several spectacular saves as well. With his goal, Kreider tied Ron Duguay for the ninth most points (47) and surpassed Mark Messier for the second most playoff goals (30) in Rangers playoff history.
5) The mood got ratcheted up as the game was ending. Below is the Max Domi-Ryan Lindgren incident at the end of the game. A pretty unnecessary cheap shot by Domi on Lindgren, which Gallant took exception to along with the chatter from ADA. If the two sides were "placid" previously, they sure are not now.
“I wasn’t happy with the bulls–t at the end of the game that they initiated,” Gallant said. “We didn’t do that when the games were close. They put their guys out, that’s fine. They want to play like that, we got guys who can match that.”
“I don’t like it at the end of the game,” Gallant said. “The game’s over. We still got four games with these guys. … We got the guy who can handle all their guys if we want to. We didn’t like to do it, but Domi took a cheap shot at our defenseman. You got a long memory. You think about things, like I said, [the shoe] might be on the other foot someday.”
It's now a series. If New York can win Game 4, they go back to Carolina for Game 5 on Thursday with a chance to hopefully steal one on the road. But first, they need to take care of business tomorrow. Get that game, hopefully using the same lines as Game 3, then use the newly constituted alignment to create pressure on the Hurricanes D in Raleigh.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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