New York Rangers payback Devils, extend winning streak to four games
The fans in attendance at Madison Square Garden heard the sweetest sounds with 2:45 remaining in overtime on Monday night. Filip Chytil’s shot rang off the far left post behind Vitek Vanecek and set off the New York Rangers goal horn for a huge victory.
By defeating the New Jersey Devils 4-3, they extended their winning streak to four straight games and prevented the visitors from tying an NHL record for road wins, halting them at 11.
“Great comeback from the team,” Chytil said. “We showed our character and got two points.”
New York Rangers payback Devils
The Rangers are starting to roll with points in six of their last seven games (5-1-1). They’re also winners of four straight after captain Jacob Trouba’s helmet toss and undressing of his team in a loss to the bottom-feeding Chicago Blackhawks.
What’s also evident in their longest winning streak of the season is their confidence levels and resiliency that are very reminiscent of last year’s squad.
In this rematch against the first-place Devils, it was a complete role reversal. New Jersey jumped out to an early 2-0 lead much like the Blueshirts did in November, both times those leads were squandered en route to a loss.
After Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer scored in less than a two minute span by the 4:46 mark of the opening frame, the Rangers slowly started to turn the game around.
Chris Kreider scored with 1:35 remaining in the first off a beautiful 2 on 1 feed from Vincent Trocheck.
As the second period began, the Rangers still found themselves struggling with the speed of the Devils leading to a Jack Hughes goal off an odd-man rush at 11:05.
Then the turning point of the game occurred with Hughes being awarded a penalty shot as Braden Schneider was forced to take him down on a breakaway.
Igor Shesterkin, who was just beaten by the Devils young star, remained patient and focused on the puck. With Hughes about to make his move, the reigning Vezina winner poked it away and improved his career stats on penalty shots to a perfect 3 for 3.
Now that the Garden was rocking, the energy and momentum was all behind the Blueshirts.
Maybe with a little help from a passed on Rangers legend, the team scored two goals in 7 seconds. Rod Gilbert wore the number 7 for 18 years on Broadway, and from somewhere up above he was probably smiling.
First it was Vincent Trocheck deflecting an Adam Fox shot on the power play to cut the lead by one. Then it was Kaapo Kakko snapping a one-timer off a beautiful feed from K’Andre Miller to knot the game at 3 with 5:55 remaining in the second frame.
“It’s huge,” Fox said via NHL.com. “You could see the emotion from the guys on the ice, laughter and tripping over everyone in the pile. You don’t see that all the time on just a goal, but when you’re able to come back from 3-1 that quickly, the crowd gets really into it, and I think it’s a big momentum swing.”
The teams were very cautious in the third period taking great care of the puck in the defensive and neutral zone.
It set the stage for Chytil in overtime, who took a beautiful pass from Artemi Panarin, and he quickly whipped it by Vanecek to send the Garden Faithful home happy.
Notable Rangers
- Igor Shesterkin stopped 26 of 29
- Artemi Panarin extends his point streak to six games (11 assists)
- Filip Chytil registered his third multi-point game of the season
Next Game: Thursday, December 15 vs Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 PM ET.
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