Jonathan Quick blanks Oilers, New York Rangers win 3-0
The New York Rangers rolled into Edmonton, Alberta, on a two-game win streak and remain undefeated on a lengthy road trip through the Western Conference after an impressive shutout performance from Jonathan Quick.
“It’s another win,” Quick noted afterwards. “We’re trying to collect points as it’s a tough road trip coming out west… We’re 3-0 (on this trip) and we’ll try to build off that the rest of the way.”
New York erupted for three goals in the second period, duplicating their performance from Tuesday night against Calgary, resulting in a clean sweep of the two Alberta teams who are near the bottom of the league standings.
Additionally, the Rangers collected their fifth early season win to remain atop the Metropolitan Division by a point over the upstart Philadelphia Flyers. Interestingly, after facing an abundance of criticism about his development and play, former first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere tallied a goal in this third straight contest, which is a personal best.
Overall, New York will wrap up this five-game trip with a winning record no matter what happens in Vancouver on Saturday or Winnipeg on Monday. Either way, this adventure is a great way to kick off the new year with opportunities to bond away from home. Eventually, the Rangers will finish this road trip and have 11% of their season in the books, but before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s a recap of their handling of a hapless Oilers team on Thursday night.
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New York Rangers 3 vs Edmonton Oilers 0
If the casual fan read into the statistics available in the game center and saw that the Rangers outshot the Oilers 10-5 in the opening period, they would be under the assumption that New York took it to the home team and dominated them through 20 minutes. However, those who watched the contest would have seen that New York had ten shots, but none were great scoring opportunities.
Of course, Stuart Skinner did rob Filip Chytil on a two-on-one with Lafreniere, but the remainder of his stops were pretty routine as the two teams tried to figure each other out. Eventually, after spending most of the period on their heels, the Oilers did create some opportunities late in the period. Still, many missed their target, and Quick gobbled up anything else. Furthermore, each team failed on their abbreviated power plays, with Blake Wheeler going off for a hook before Evander Kane axed the Oilers man advantage with an interference call.
Meanwhile, just like their previous game against the Flames, the Rangers used an early power play opportunity in the second period to establish themselves in the contest. After Warren Foegele went off for a high stick, Adam Fox fired home a top-shelf goal at 3:32, thanks to a beautiful feed from Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Paranin for his second goal of the season. Moreover, it was the Rangers’ seventh power play tally of the year, with goals in every matchup except against Seattle.
New York continued to pile up the shots, eventually finishing the middle frame with 18 and tallying two more goals, leading to the home crowd booing the Oilers off the ice after 40 minutes. Although it was still only 1-0 with eight minutes left to play, Braden Schneider wired home the game’s second goal after a great feed from Jimmy Vesey for his first goal of the season.
Barclay Goodrow was still offside during the play as the puck came out of the Oilers’ zone but hopped over the boards milliseconds before Vesey crossed into the zone. While the lines-person was indicting the play was onside, Vesey sent a pass to the slot with Schneider coming in at top speed and, after a few strides, picked the top corner over Skinner’s blocker to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.
“We came out and played another really solid game,” a smiling Schneider explained. “Quickie was amazing tonight, but our whole team has been playing the right way.”
Then, in the dying minutes, Lafreniere continued his road trip hot streak with a snipe that beat a diving Skinner to give New York a 3-0 lead heading into the final period. Interestingly, his fourth goal of the season was set up by Paranin and Schneider, which is the first time that Chytil hasn’t earned an assist on one of his lamplighters.
Surprisingly, the Oilers came out with a little fight in the third period, but without Connor McDavid, they don’t have the same firepower as they do with a fully healthy lineup. Ultimately, they finished the night with 29 shots on the goal, the most attempts New York has given up thus far in 2023-24.
As mentioned, Quick was sharp and made some key saves at the right moments. However, the Oilers lack the killer instinct to rally back and get into the game after falling behind in the second period. Overall, it was a solid effort for the Rangers, who didn’t get caught up in playing sloppy hockey against a weaker opponent.
“A good effort from start to finish,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “Our goaltender played really well in net. We made noise in the second period, but he had to make a lot of saves that were really big.”
Rangers Notes
- For just the third time this season, the Rangers lost the battle in the faceoff circle, finishing the night at 41.5%, their second-lowest total through seven games.
- Chytil’s point streak ended after two games when he scored five points on assists.
- Quick picked up his fourth career shutout against the Oilers, improving to 25-11-6 against the franchise. The shutout was the 59th of his career, tops among all U.S. Born goalies.
- Panarin extended his point streak to seven games, thanks to two assists in this contest, giving him the top spot in the team-scoring race with ten points.
- Additionally, with another powerplay goal, New York remains one of the top teams with the man advantage, ranking sixth overall at 30.4%.
The Rangers head to British Columbia for Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada matchup with the Vancouver Canucks; puck drop will be at 10:00 PM ET.
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