New York Rangers play one of their best games this season in 3-2 overtime win vs. Devils
Igor Shesterkin was back from injury. The special teams were vastly improved. Adam Fox finally scored against a goaltender. And Sam Carrick put a bow on the New York Rangers’ best performance in quite a while by scoring 2:48 into overtime for a 3-2 victory against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
After Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom stopped Mika Zibanejad on a wide-open shot and a breakaway a minute apart in OT, Carrick won it with the first overtime goal of his NHL career. Devils center Jack Hughes whiffed on a pass near the Rangers’ blue line, and New York came back on a 2-on-1 rush. Reilly Smith carried down the middle before dishing the puck to Carrick, and the fourth-line center ripped a shot past Markstrom from the left circle to give the Rangers a 3-1-1 record in their past five games and a 19-20-2 mark at the halfway point of their season.
Shesterkin, who missed the previous four games with an upper-body injury, showed no rust in a 21-save performance. Fox and Artemi Panarin scored power-play goals, the first time since Nov. 30 that the Rangers have scored more than once with the extra man. Fox’s goal was his second of the season but the first with a goaltender in the net – the other was an empty-netter against the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 11.
This was arguably the Rangers’ best game of the season against a quality opponent. Their intensity level, which was absent in the pre-Christmas debacle in New Jersey, was in full flower in the rematch. The Rangers got better as the game went along, outshooting New Jersey 25-12 after the first period and dominating play for most of that time.
“Wins always give you confidence,” Panarin said. “It doesn’t matter (how you) win. Even if you play bad, which we weren’t doing tonight. We were playing great I think.”
The Devils got second-period goals by Hughes and Jesper Bratt, who have feasted on the Rangers this season. What New Jersey couldn’t do was score on any of its four power play after going 3-for-4 in its 5-0 win at Prudential Center on Dec. 23. The Rangers’ penalty-killers were superb, limiting the Devils’ chances and getting a couple of shorthanded opportunities.
The goal was Carrick’s third of the season, and his second in four games.
“He always scores a lot on me in practice,” Shesterkin said with a smile.
The Rangers will hit the road for their next three games, beginning Saturday night against the Vegas Golden Knights. They visit the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday and the Utah Hockey Club on Jan. 16.
“It’s a big trip for us,” said Fox, who also had an assist. “We’ve played some really good hockey recently, and we have some momentum going into this road trip.
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New York Rangers 3 — New Jersey Devils 2 (OT)
The Devils thought they had scored 5:50 into the game when Luke Hughes’ shot from the right circle got past Shesterkin. Referee Tom Chmielewski called it a goal, but video replay showed that the puck hit the crossbar and stayed out.
The Rangers then killed off back-to-back penalties, one to Fox for high sticking and the other a bench minor for too many men. New Jersey’s lone Grade A scoring chance came in the final seconds of the second power play when Shesterkin robbed Timo Meier on the doorstep.
New York got its first power play at 12:00 when New Jersey’s Kurtis MacDermid took a foolish offensive-zone interference penalty for shoving defenseman Ryan Lindgren into Shesterkin — and the Rangers needed just five seconds to take a 1-0 lead. Vincent Trocheck won the draw back to Fox, who let go a straightaway slap shot from just inside the blue line. The shot hit the stick of Devils defenseman Jonathan Kovacevic, snapping it in two, and sailed past Markstrom. It was Fox’s second goal of the season.
The Rangers took the lead into intermission despite being outshot 11-8, out-attempted 22-11 and having no high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Will Cuylle had a chance to double the Rangers’ lead early in the second period but fired over the net. That missed opportunity came back to bite them when Rangers-killer Jack Hughes was left alone in front and tipped Brent Pesce’s point shot past Shesterkin at 4:03 to tie the game 1-1. It was Hughes’ 16th goal of the season and fifth in three games against the Rangers.
Bratt, who like Hughes came into the game with six points in two games against the Rangers this season, put New Jersey ahead for the first time at 8:28, beating Shesterkin from the left face-off dot after a pass from Hughes. The Rangers had a glorious chance to tie the game less than a minute later when Smith and Trocheck went in on a 2-on-0 shorthanded breakaway. Smith carried the puck and fed Trocheck, who fired over the crossbar.
But they got even at 17:13 by making it 2-for-2 on the power play. With Nico Hischier off for slashing, Markstrom stopped Zibanejad’s shot from the slot but was helpless when the rebound came right to Panarin at the side of the net for a quick put-away. It was Panarin’s team-high 17th goal but first in six games.
Markstrom kept the game tied early in the third period, when the Rangers had the first eight shots but couldn’t score. The Rangers got their third power play at 10:39 when Nathan Bastian was sent off for tripping, but the Devils had three great shorthanded chances, including a breakaway by Dawson Mercer that was stopped by Shesterkin, before the power play ended when Zibanejad was called for slashing at 11:34.
The last few minutes of regulation were frantic, with plenty of scoring chances, but the goaltenders were up to the task and got the game into overtime, giving Carrick the chance to be the hero.
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