Habs beat listless New York Rangers 2-1
I’m pretty sure the New York Rangers would like a do over after this one.
After an enthralling comeback win over the Dallas Stars on Thursday, they followed it up with a stinker against the Montreal Canadiens. It looked like a game where the Rangers couldn’t be bothered to defend and assumed that at least half of their best attempts would beat Sam Montembeault.
Instead, the Habs netminder turned away 38 shots en route to a 2-1 victory over a listless Blueshirts squad.
The Rangers had two regulars out in Chris Kreider and Julien Gauthier due to injury. In addition to that, they’ve been dealing with a stomach bug that may have played a role in the lethargic effort.
“It was flat,” Gerard Gallant said. “The energy level didn’t look great. Whether it’s that, I don’t know. I’m not going to yell at them and scream, ‘What’s going on?’ We were hoping they would have some good jump. We expect better from our group.”
New York Rangers fall flat vs Habs
In the first period, the Rangers were buzzing looking to pounce on the Canadiens early knowing they played last night. However, for almost every chance they generated the Habs got a better one the other way.
If not for Igor Shesterkin, who finished the game with 29 saves, this could’ve been over sooner.
Kirby Dach opened the scoring 4:54 into the second period with a power play goal. Once again, the Rangers special teams has been wanting in recent games. They failed to score an either of their two opportunities and have gone four straight games without a power play goal (0-11).
Artemi Panarin would tie the game on a delayed call with a beautiful wrist shot from the slot as the clock showed 3:47 remaining. Filip Chytil and K’Andre Miller recorded the assists. For Miller, it keeps up his points streak to 7 games (3G – 5A).
Unfortunately, it was Miller’s misplay with the puck that snapped the 1-1 tie as Nick Suzuki found Cole Caufield alone in front for the game-winning goal in the third period.
“Sometimes a game like this happens,” Chytil said. “Good thing is tomorrow we have a game to get it back.”
The Rangers will head to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets tomorrow night at 7:00 pm et.
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