New York Rangers rally to take down Red Wings 3-2

NHL: Detroit Red Wings at New York Rangers
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Rangers played host to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night and battled back for a 3-2 victory.

Artemi Panarin, K’Andre Miller, and Jimmy Vesey filled Detroit’s net with Alexis Lafreniere registering two primary assists. Meanwhile, Igor Shesterkin was really sharp making 25 saves in the winning effort.

“I’m comfortable in my role,” Vesey said on TNT. “We’ve got a great group and winning makes everything better.”

New York once again takes the lead in the Presidents’ Trophy race with 33 points, 1 more point than the Vegas Golden Knights, who are not in action.

Related: Trouba takes responsibility for fine

New York Rangers 3 vs Detroit Red Wings 2

NHL: Detroit Red Wings at New York Rangers
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The opening period started off with a feel-out process between the two squads. Eventually, the Rangers started to get it going but any of their decent scoring chances were thwarted by Ville Husso, who stopped all 11 shots sent his way.

New York almost scored on an early power play, but Chris Kreider deflected a Mika Zibanejad shot off the post as his quest for 100 goals on the man advantage eluded him. Meanwhile, Igor Shesterkin only faced 7 shots and turned them all aside.

Detroit opened up the second period on the attack only to watch Shesterkin flash a big pad to stop a Shayne Gostibehere blast. After weathering the Wings’ early volley, K’Andre Miller started a beautiful odd-man rush that saw Alexis Lafreniere sell a shot to find the Rangers leading scorer streaking down the opposite wing. Artemi Panarin made no mistake and rifled it bar down for the 1-0 lead at the 4:37 mark.

The lead was short-lived as Moritz Seider knotted things up on a power play goal a little over four minutes later. Then it took just 23 seconds for the Red Wings to take the lead off some sloppy play in their own zone as Robby Fabbri found the puck in the slot to blast it by a helpless Shesterkin.

After getting over the initial shock, the Rangers took control for the rest of the middle stanza. Unfortunately for them, Husso was up to the task stopping Lafreniere on the doorstep and then Blake Wheeler on a breakaway before the buzzer sounded.

In the final frame, the Blueshirts kept coming in waves and finally got another by Husso at the 9:13 mark. Miller blasted a one-timer off a nice set up from Zibanejad to even things up at 2. Captain Jacob Trouba, who was once again a physical force registered the other assist.

The Blueshirts would take the lead with 4:15 remaining as Lafreniere jumped out of the penalty box and led the rush up ice. His shot was stopped by Husso, but Jimmy Vesey showed excellent hand-eye coordination to bat it into the net. After a brief review to see if the stick was above the crossbar, the goal was upheld.

Vincent Trocheck, who recorded an assist on the Vesey’s goal was called for tripping with 1:56 remaining to put the Rangers’ PK to work. Detroit pulled Husso for the extra attacker, but were met by a wall of Blueshirts including Trouba and his team-leading shot blocking abilities to secure the victory.

Rangers Notes

The Rangers will travel to Nashville to take on the Predators at 4:30 p.m. ET. this coming Saturday.

Anthony Scultore is the founder of Forever Blueshirts and has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL ... More about Anthony Scultore
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