Recap: Rangers Bounce Back With 4-1 Win Over Blackhawks 

It’s always a great night for original six hockey but this one held a little more excitement for a number of reasons. First off, it was Connor Bedard, the next generational star of the NHL’s first visit to the World’s Most Famous Arena but more notably for Rangers fans, the big storyline was the NHL debut of Brennan Othmann. His rookie lap would kick off what ended up being a great debut for him and an even better bounce back win for the Rangers to help them get back on track in the new year.

1st Period:

A low event first half of the games opening period as the two teams got acquainted with each other to start the evening. All eyes were on the first ever player to wear #78 for the Rangers as Brennan Othmann took the ice for his first ever shift. A respectable introduction to the NHL as the rookie had a hard shot on goal right out the gate and would go on to finish the period with three total shots on net.

The Rangers dominated the first half of the period but the Blackhawks saw one of the first real good scoring chances at the midway mark of the period. Igor Shesterkin came up with a big pad save against a patient Reese Johnson from close up in the crease.

With exactly seven minutes to go in the first, Artemiy Panarin found the back of the net for the Blueshirts. Vincent Trocheck made a great play at the Rangers blueline knocking Connor Bedard off the puck which allowed him to move the puck up to Alexis Lafrenèire who fed Panarin with a perfect pass over to Panarin to let the one-timer go, making it a 1-0 game.

That line continued to shine as Alexis Lafrenèire was all over the ice and was robbed of a goal not long after he helped Panarin get his. The Rangers would carry the one goal lead into the first intermission despite Chicago getting another big chance to end the period. An attempted clear from Igor Shesterkin was grabbed by Mackenzie Enwistle who let a quick shot go to keep the pressure on. Good pace all around through the first twenty as the Rangers out-shot Chicago 11-8 with no penalties.

2nd Period:

The Rangers took the first penalty of the night as Adam Fox got tangled up with Boris Katchouk on a rush that followed a great shift from the Rangers fourth line. Chicago would only get halfway through the man advantage before taking a penalty of their own as Kevin Korchinski knocked over a puck-less Jimmy Vesey. The teams skated 4-on-4 for a full minute with the Rangers quickly controlling the play. As Chicago iced the puck just before Adam Fox returned to the ice, an icing was called and the face-off went back to their end for the Rangers to officially begin their minute of power play time.

After a couple of looks on the power play, Mika Zibanejad threw the puck in front of the net as Vincent Trocheck went hard in that direction. He wouldn’t get a clear shot off but the puck would bounce off his stick and go off the post before bouncing around in the crease. Chris Kreider did what Chris Kreider does and also went hard to the net and ended up guiding the puck into the back of the net along the way.

Chicago netminder Petr Mrazek immediately disagreed and suggested that Kreider kicked the puck in but upon an official review, it was decided that there was no kicking motion and the call on the ice would stand. A good goal as Kreider picked up his 20th of the season to make it a 2-0 game in favor of New York.

With that goal, Kreider registered his ninth 20-goal season of his career with only two other players accomplishing that feat in franchise history. The same two players currently ahead of them on the team’s all-time goal leaders list, Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert.

The Rangers continued applying tons of pressure. That second line saw another really good chance on an odd-man rush but as Trocheck went to send the puck over to Panarin, it deflected off some traffic and nailed Panarin right in the mouth. Thankfully, Panarin would be alright aside from a gnarly cut on the side of his mouth. The third line kept that energy going as Brennan Othmann again continued to fire on all cylinders and saw a couple of really good scoring chances.

Despite how things were looking, the Blackhawks were hanging around. With three minutes to go Colin Blackwell found himself all alone going hard to the net as Katchouk found him with the pass from the left wing wall. A nice, simple and effective backhand-forehand move was enough for the former Ranger to fake out Shesterkin and put Chicago on the board, 2-1 game.

Right off the face-off Blackwell was tripped up by K’Andre Miller which sent the Blackhawks back to the power play. Unable to get much going, the Rangers killed off the advantage which brought the teams to intermission number two. Shots were now 19-14 in favor of New York who had 100% success rate on both the power play and penalty kill throughout the period.

3rd Period:

It took the Rangers a minute and a half into the third period to find the net again,. Vincent Trocheck found Panarin up high in the slot who moved up with it and found Jacob Trouba on the half wall. A quick slap shot from the Rangers Captain flew past Mrazek up high to extend his team’s lead, 3-1.

About one minute later, a nice zone entry from Will Cuylle off a Chicago turnover led to a nice pass across to Jimmy Vesey who was able to bury the shot back door to make it 4-1.

Another former friend of the Rangers got himself on the stat sheet but not for a goal. Jarred Tinordi gave Blake Wheeler a shove following a whistle which bothered the Rangers veteran and resulted in a proper fight between the two.

Things slowed down a bit from there for the most part but Brennan Othmann did not as he continued to stand out, making a beautiful no-look pass down low in the offensive zone to Jonny Brodzinski. Not long after that, Jason Dickinson got a stick up high on Ryan Lindgren to give the Rangers a power play but that was quickly negated as Adam Fox came up with a rare two penalty night, tripping up Nick Foligno.

No harm in the two fouls as the score remained the same as the teams returned to even strength. With only a couple minutes left, the Rangers held onto that 4-1 lead as they would bounce back from a tough loss to Carolina and pick up a pair of points against the Blackhawks. A solid effort all around with a great first showing for Brennan Othmann who finished the night with a total of five shots on goal.

The Rangers are back at it this weekend as they’ll cross the border into Canada for another original six matchup as they’ll face-off against the Montreal Canadiens Saturday Night.