Rangers take 5th place, defeat Blues 5-3 at Traverse City
After a thrilling comeback win, topped off with a Kaapo Kakko OT winner, the Rangers took part in the fifth place game against the Blues. This game would fare well for New York as they came out early and defeated the Blues Prospects 5-3 to take 5th place in the Traverse City Tournament.
Kakko, Fox and Kravtsov were among the scratches today, as Kade Landry, Keith Getson and Josh Maser filled in for New York. Adam Huska started the game in between the pipes in place of Shesterkin.
Right off the bat, the Rangers prospects dropped three on the Blues in the first period. At 4:31 into the period, Joey Keane dished one to Ryan Dmowski to get New York on the board. A couple of minutes later, Anthony Salintri netted a goal, assisted by Nick Jones and Tarmo Reunanen at 11:19 into the second. Then, Jake Elmer pots a goal from Karl Henriksson at 12:59 to put the Blueshirts up 3. Both defense and offensive efforts were stellar for the Rangers in the first period.
Second period was much of the same, as the Rangers continued to play strong hockey against the Blues prospects. Tarmo Reunanen with a fake shot pass to Nick Jones on the power play made it a 4-0 game. Karl Henriksson, who is still playing well despite not having Kakko and Kravtsov on his line, notches another assist. Although St.Louis would have a flurry of chances on a few power plays, Adam Huska kept the Rangers in it by notching a few nice saves on some strong chances from the Blues power play.
St.Louis would finally hit the scoreboard with an Alexey Toropchenko with an assist from Dakota Joshua at 17:10 of the second period. Right before the period ended, the Blues would add one more to the board, as Klim Kostin scored on a rush down the wing to make it a 4-2 game.
Mathias Laferriere opened the scoring for the Blues, making it 4-3 in the third period but Patrick Newell for the Rangers would keep it a two goal game as he scored with about 9 minutes to play while playing 4 on 4 to put the score at 5-3. Hunter Skinner and Karl Henriksson picked up the assists. Newell’s goal gives Henriksson his third assist of the contest.
After a flurry of chances late by the Blues with an empty net, their advantage was stifled as the Blues took a hooking penalty. The Rangers would finish the game on the power play and close out the tournament with a 5-3 win. Adam Huska was stellar in net, making 32 saves on 35 shots.
Tarmo Reunanen continued his solid tournament with a plus/minus rating of +1 and two assists. Karl Henriksson was strong on the first line, netting three assists of his own. Ryan Dmowski, Jake Elmer and Patrick Newell also looked strong out there, each netting a goal of their own to add to the stat sheet. Joey Keane, Nick Jones and Hunter Skinner contributed as well. This win places the Rangers in 5th place of the 2019 Traverse City Tournament with a total of three wins and one loss.
Overall, this game was a continuation of yesterday’s effort, which was a strong team defensive game with the right amount of offense. Although it took the Rangers a little bit of time to get going offensively yesterday, today they came out flying and kept the lead throughout the contest. The youth the Rangers put on display during the tournament is a testament to the solid drafting and signing the organization has done and is a tiny preview of what can be shown at MSG in the near distant future.
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