Rolling Rangers ready to rumble against Flames
The New York Rangers are rolling into the Scotiabank Saddledome to take on the Calgary Flames tonight.
After stunning the Edmonton Oilers on Friday by overcoming a 4-1 first period deficit to win in the shootout, the Rangers extended their points streak to nine games (8-0-1). They also recorded their second seven-game winning streak of the season, a franchise first.
Here’s tonight’s game and broadcast info:
New York Rangers (33-14-8) vs. Calgary Flames (25-19-11)
Date/Time: February 18, 2023 at 10:00 PM ET
Arena: Scotiabank Saddledome
TV: MSG
Radio: ESPN 98.7
New York Rangers ready to rumble vs Flames
The Flames are looking for some payback after a 5-4 OT loss at the Garden on February 6. In that contest, the Rangers delivered some big hits and threw fists en route to victory.
Flames tough guy, Milan Lucic was a recipient of one of those body checks and is apparently itching to get revenge.
Saturday is the Rangers-Flames rematch from their entertaining, nasty affair at Madison Square Garden. Mark Giordano said he texted Milan Lucic about it post-game. Did you ask him why he let Sammy Blais knock him over? “Oh, he was pretty upset about that,” Giordano said, laughing, and then he paused. “Yeah, he was pretty upset, that’s all I’ll say about that one.” Blais is gone now, but Lucic is going to be wired.
Elliotte Friedman, 32 Thoughts
While the Flames may be looking for some retribution, they need to be careful and stay out of the box. New York’s offense is red-hot having scored at least four goals during this latest winning streak, that also includes notching six goals three times.
Last night, in their big rally over the Oilers, the power play registered twice and they even picked up a shorthanded goal.
Since their first win of this current streak against the Vegas Golden Knights on January 27, the Rangers power play is third in the NHL running at a 35.3% success rate.
Mika Zibanejad picked up his team-leading 30th goal of the season on the man-advantage to knot last night’s game. It was also his 17th power play goal, which is second to only Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (20) this year.
“Again, there’s ‘No quit in New York,’” Zibanejad said Friday. “We had to make sure we trust our way of playing. I mean there’s 40 minutes left at that point, and little by little you get back into the game, and that’s what we did.”
The Rangers will start Jaroslav Halak in goal tonight to complete this back-to-back set and road four-game road trip.
Halak, 37, is riding a personal seven-game winning streak and was in net to beat the Flames two weeks ago. His lifetime record against Calgary is 11-6-1 with a GAA of 2.28, and a .921 save percentage.
“It’s not important how many wins I have,” Halak said after his latest victory. “As a team, we keep getting points and that’s the most important thing for us this time of the year.”
After this game, the Blueshirts will return home to host the Winnipeg Jets before hitting the road again against the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals.
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