Canucks Snap Rangers Win Streak At Madison Square Garden
The dreaded trap game.....
The New York Rangers had their winning streak snapped this evening at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks, and fell by a final score of 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. Coming into this game, many expected the Rangers to walk all over the Canucks, who entered tonight losing nine straight. However, that was exactly the opposite as the Canucks found a way to neutralize the Rangers speed quite effectively.
It took both teams a little while to get going in this one, with the score remaining tied at zero heading into the second period. At the 7:20 mark, the Rangers got on the board with Pavel Buchnevich depositing his third goal in as many games. Jesper Fast made an excellent cross-ice feed over the Buchnevich, who tucked the puck behind Jakok Markstrom to make it a 1-0 game.
Following the goal, the Rangers fell into a bit of a lull, which allowed the Canucks to dominate possession for a good chuck of the period. That eventually lead to Vancouver tying up the game late in the period, after the Rangers were caught out on an extended shift.
Loui Eriksson was able to pick up his first goal of the season following a centering pass from Daniel Sedin, and he tucked it just under the crossbar. That downward trend continued into the third period, where the Canucks quickly pounced on a counter-attack right as Henrik Sedin’s penalty expired.
Erik Gudbranson found Sedin coming out of the penalty box, and sprung him up the ice with plenty of room coming into the zone. Before the Rangers were able to get back, Henrik Sedin ripped a slap shot just under the arm of Raanta, and gave the Canucks their first lead of the night.
Thankfully, the Rangers were able to bounce back shortly after that with Antti Raanta taking a shot in the crease, and drawing a goaltender interference penalty. Rick Nash eventually converted on the power play with help from Buchnevich, who set him up with beautiful just off to the side of the net. Then, everything came crumbling back down.
As a result of the collision in the crease, Raanta was forced to the leave the game to undergo concussion protocol. Henrik Lundqvist replaced Raanta in the goal without any sort of warmup, and that Canucks quickly attacked. They were able to score two goals over a span of four minutes, and grabbed a 4-2 lead before Raanta was allowed back into the game.
Following a last ditch push by the Rangers, Alexandre Burrows iced the game with the empty net to snap the Rangers winning streak. The Rangers will now have some much needed time off before they head out west to begin their Western Canada swing on Saturday against the Calgary Flames.
