Recap: Rangers Score 7 Unanswered to Right the Ship
It would be another day of chaos for the Rangers. In addition to potentially being without defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who left last night’s game early with an injury, Rangers Captain Jacob Trouba received a hearing with the Department of Player Safety for an elbow that nobody even noticed during the game against Vegas. As it would turn out, Lindgren, who ended up being a game time decision, would be a no go and Jacob Trouba would receive a two-game suspension.
This prompted some changes to the defensive pairings as K’Andre Miller would pair up with Branden Schneider, Zac Jones would slot in to the left of Erik Gustafsson and recent call up Connor Mackey would pair up with Adam Fox in his first game with the Rangers this season. With Jonathan Quick in net, the Rangers took to the ice in desperate need of a victory to hopefully put this slump to bed before the All-Star break.
1st Period:
It wasn’t a high intensity type of pace to the game but the Rangers did a good job of dominating play right out the gate as they spent the first four minutes of the game in Ottawa’s zone. Connor Mackey came close to his first as a Ranger as he ripped a shot from the point that went off the post just over four minutes into the night. The tide would turn a couple of minutes later as Ottawa found some jump in their game but over seven minutes into the first, Ottawa was still without a shot on goal.
That would finally change as Ottawa saw a shot on goal after Ridly Greig made a nice play to protect the puck and pass it over to Drake Batherson who was turned away by Jonathan Quick. As the home team continued to push, another big opportunity required an extending leg save from the Rangers netminder to keep them in this scoreless game.
A god awful turnover from K’Andre Miller bounced off of Claude Giroux and resulted in a breakaway opportunity for Brady Tkachuk. One that the Senators Captain was more than qualified to capitalize on as he snuck a backhander through Quick’s five hole to make it a 1-0 game halfway through the first period.
With five and a half minutes to go in the first, we finally saw some visible frustrations from someone in a Rangers jersey as Barclay Goodrow dropped the gloves with Mark Kastelic in somewhat of a spirited bout.
A wild sequence took place on the following shift as Tim Stützle attempted to finish on a rebound with a between the legs move. Adam Fox was quick to throw him to the ground as they exchanged some words and Vincent Trocheck had the chance with a shot from up high going the other way with the puck.
With two and a half minutes to go, Drake Batherson got his stick up high on Jonny Brodzinski to give the Rangers the first power play of the night. Another night with the same story, Rangers pass and pass and pass until the puck leaves the zone and they chase it around until they’re back to even strength before they know it. They were overpassing so much it got to the point where they couldn’t even complete the passes as the puck was bouncing over sticks and they were clearing the zone themselves.
At the end of the first, the Rangers once again out-shot their opponents (12-7) without it doing them any good whatsoever. They were ahead in face-offs, ahead in puck possession, ahead in everything except the game itself. Something had to give, someone had to answer if this team was going to find a way to turn things around.
2nd Period:
Just over a minute into the second, the Rangers were called for their first penalty of the night as a high stick from Mika Zibanejad caught Brady Tkachuk in the face to give Ottawa a power play. Only took them nine seconds to convert as Jakob Chychurn let a one timer go off a pass from Batherson that found the back of the net no problem to make it a 2-0 game.
About five minutes in, Connor Mackey threw a big hit on Tim Stützle which resulted in Brady Tkachuk challenging the Rangers defenseman in his first game as a New York Ranger. Mackey actually did a good job of standing his ground and ended up winning the fight despite taking a couple of hard punches from Tkachuk.
The Rangers were finally applying pressure again as Adam Fox was holding strong with the puck at the point. He fed a pass to Mika Zibanejad in the slot which Joonas Korpisalo was able to turn away, prompting me to say “this team can’t buy a goal.” Just as I finished that thought, Alexis Lafrenière finally got this team on the board as he banked the rebound off the pad of a sprawling Korpisalo to make it a 2-1 game.
Not long after the Rangers got on the board, Blake Wheeler and Mathieu Joseph got tangled up with each other chasing the puck into the corner which resulted in both of them heading to the penalty box, prompting two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey. Wheeler for interference, Joseph for embellishment. Right after the puck dropped in the Rangers zone, Chris Kreider was off to the races and let a quick shot go that surprised everyone, including Korpisalo to tie the game back up at two.
A much needed goal from one of this team’s top players. This would also earn Mika Zibanejad his 30th assist of the season as well as his 500th point of his career, making him the fourth fastest player in franchise history to reach that 500 point feat.
On that very next shift, Vincent Trocheck made a beautiful play at the point to push the puck ahead to Artemiy Panarin. Panarin took the puck into Ottawa’s zone and held strong until he had a clean lane to pass it over to Zac Jones. Jones did an extraordinary job of going hard to the net and was able to let a quick shot go to give the Rangers their first lead in what feels like so long. That would also be Zac Jones first goal of the season in his 16th game of the season.
This team wasn’t done. As they returned to even strength, Will Cuylle got Zac Jones the puck at the point who let a quick shot go that deflected off of Jonny Brodzinksi’s stick in front of the net to extend their lead 4-2. Three goals in three minutes for the Rangers who absolutely needed this. That would put an end to Joonas Korpisalo’s night as Mads Søgaard would come in to replace him after letting up four goals in a span of six minutes.
Things settled down a bit from there, but with just about three minutes to go, this team continued to play with some fire as Blake Wheeler went hard to the net to finish on an outstanding pass from Mika Zibanejad to make it 5-2.
What a turn of events. With two minutes to go, Artem Zub sent a fan home with a souvenir which sent him to the penalty box for delay of game. The Rangers headed back to the power play and nearly made it 6-2 as Alexis Lafrenière pulled off an incredible move to cut to his backhand but was kept out of Ottawa’s net. Quick had to answer a breakaway from Mathieu Joseph but aside from that, the Rangers skated off to the second intermission riding very high off five unanswered goals to really turn things around. The key from here would be holding strong for another twenty minutes to head into the All-Star break with a massive win.
3rd Period:
Things slowed down significantly in the third period and rightfully so.The Rangers had a massive lead thanks to their explosive second period, all they needed to do was play well enough to preserve the lead and get to that final buzzer. Ottawa had some moments and got plenty of pucks on net to which Jonathan Quick came up with the necessary saves and just over the midway point of the period, Artem Zub went back to the box for slashing.
The Rangers had some good looks on the power play but none strong enough to find the back of the net. With five minutes to go in the game, the Senators pulled Søgaard for the extra attacker for one last ditch effort to get back in this one. After Ottawa controlled play for a couple of minutes, Artemiy Panarin sent the puck into the open net for his 30th goal of the season to make it a 6-2 game. That wouldn’t be all as a shot from Jonny Brodzinski at the point rang around behind Ottawa’s net and came out right to Kaapo Kakko on the other side for his second goal in the last two games, 7-2 Rangers.
What a night. Seven unanswered goals from this Rangers team to come from behind in Ottawa and head into the All-Star break with their heads held a little higher. This doesn’t automatically fix all the problems that have come up throughout the last ten games or so but man, it feels really good to see this team score so many goals and bounce back from one of their worst games of the season.
Kudos to Zac Jones and Connor Mackey for stepping up and each playing a great game to help spark this team’s comeback. Stick taps to Head Coach Peter Laviolette as well who wins his 782nd game to tie Al Arbour for 7th on the NHL’s all-time wins list.
The Rangers will have a much needed break just over a full week long to unwind and regroup before they resume the season with a big test at the Garden against the Colorado Avalanche.
