New York Rangers third period surge snaps Hurricanes win streak
It certainly wasn’t the New York Rangers best executed game of the season, but it my be their biggest win to date.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Rangers rallied from a 3-2 deficit to start the third period with three unanswered goals. With the 5-3 final score, they ended the Carolina Hurricanes franchise record 11 game winning streak. The Blueshirts also ended the Canes’ streak of 17 games with no losses in regulation (15-0-2).
“They’ve been one of the hottest teams in the NHL,” Gerard Gallant said on the postgame. “We weren’t perfect and we got some puck luck tonight. Again, it’s a big win and a good win for us. We just have to continue and build off games like this.”
New York Rangers go streak busting again
The streak busting Blueshirts were at it again on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. Back in December they stopped the New Jersey Devils from tying an NHL record for consecutive road wins. They followed that up the next game by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs to halt their win streak and Mitch Marner’s point streak at 23 games.
Carolina opened the scoring in the first period when a bad clearing attempt led to a mad scramble in front of Igor Shesterkin, who was way too far out of his crease. Eventually Brent Burns was able to take a swipe at the puck and watched as the Rangers goalie helped sweep it into the net with his pad trying to get back.
The Rangers struggling power play, which appears to be shaking out of its doldrums by scoring twice in their 5-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Sunday were at it again on this night by going 3 for 5.
First it was Jacob Trouba to knot the game up on a point shot that hit some Hurricane bodies to elude Pytor Kochetkov. Vitali Kravtsov and Filip Chytil earned the assists on a rare second unit power play goal 3:34 remaining in the opening frame.
Unfortunately, as the Garden was celebrating, Martin Necas put home a nice feed from Andrei Svechnikov to regain the lead just 16 seconds later.
The Rangers tied it up early in the second period thanks to Mika Zibanejad’s team leading 19th goal of the season. It was one that Kochetkov would like back as Mika’s attempted pass in front slid by the Canes rusty goaltender, who had not played in two weeks due to injury.
Once again, the Hurricanes quickly answered back to restore the lead as Chytil made a weak attempt at a block and deflected Jalen Chatfield’s pass behind Shesterkin just 29 seconds later. It earned him a demotion to the fourth line with Barclay Goodrow taking his place between Alexis Lafreniere and Jimmy Vesey.
The Rangers took their fifth ranked 49 third period goals into the final stanza and added three more upping it to 52 and a +16 goal differential.
First it started with a beautiful score by Artemi Panarin as he took the puck from the end boards, skated to the middle of the ice and fired one by Kochetkov just 36 seconds in.
K’Andre Miller would break the tie and score the eventual game-winner at the 10:27 mark. Kaapo Kakko, who was strong all game, made a pass to Zibanejad at the point and he sent one flying towards the net that Miller deflected.
“We’ve been through stuff like that, back and forth games,” Miller explained. “I think it was just about us and sticking with it tonight.”
Chytil would ice the game with a power play tally into an empty net thanks to a questionable call on Jordan Martinook for playing the puck with a broken stick. Miller would get the primary assist on the insurance marker.
A little redemption for Chytil and another power play goal for the second unit.
Shesterkin had a relatively light evening of work stopping 20 of 23 shots sent his way. However, he earned his reputation with two huge stops in tight on a Canes power play in the late stages of the third period to preserve the lead.
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