Recap: Two Goal Games From Panarin, Fox Secure 6-1 Win in San Jose

Rinse, rather, repeat with a much better outcome, the Rangers paid a final visit of the season to the San Jose Sharks. Another incredibly young team in the heart of the rebuild full of former friends (Wennberg, Goodrow, Georgiev), the Rangers needed to right the ship after a pitiful performance the night prior. With the Islanders and Columbus both losing today, the Rangers remained in a position where a win would put them back in a wildcard position.

Thanks to two goal nights from Panarin and Fox, the Rangers were able to snap their losing streak and do just that with a dominant 6-1 win.

1st Period: 

Just two and a half minutes in, Brennan Othmann did a good job in front of the Sharks net and ended up drawing a hooking penalty to send the Rangers to the power play early. Going 1-for-7 the night prior, the Rangers naturally ran the same power play units right back which came up unsuccessful across the two minute infraction. The one bright side, the Rangers were out-shooting San Jose 8-1 within the first five minutes of play which in comparison to certain outings this season, was an outstanding shooting percentage. 

A minute and a half out from the midway point of the period, the Rangers were applying good pressure in the offensive zone as Jonny Brodzinski fired a backhander from the slot into a wide open net. Problem was, Mika Zibanejad was tangled up with Alexandar Georigev which resulted in the officials immediately waving off the goal for goaltender interference. 

The Rangers would officially convert about three minutes later. Urho Vaakanainen broke his stick with a shot attempt at the point which led to Braden Schneider picking up the puck on the right wing side. He fired a pass over to Artemi Panarin who held on and fired a shot with purpose that beat Georgiev to make it a 1-0 game. 

Just under two minutes later, an offensive zone face-off win from Trocheck allowed Will Borgen to cut towards center before dishing it over to Panarin. Following a similar path, Panarin waited for a clear shot and found the back of the net again to make it a 2-0 game. 

Despite the team's struggles, Panarin continues to be one of the most effective players in the NHL throughout the last month. 

That would do it for the first as the Rangers put together a pretty good period of hockey to secure a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Shots after the first twenty were 14-5 in the Rangers favor as they had a complete change of pace from how they looked in the third period in Anaheim the night prior. 

2nd Period:

The Rangers were again off to a great start in the second but about two and a half minutes in, the Sharks got their best chance of the night. William Eklund and Will Smith ended up on an odd-man rush as Eklund fed a pass over to Smith for a quick shot that Jonathan Quick was able to flash the glove on to make the save. 

Not long after that sequence, another strong shift from the Rangers kept the puck in the Sharks end for an extended amount of time. Brennan Othmann made a beautiful cross zone pass to Adam Fox to Georgiev’s left that Fox was able to fire straight to the back of the net to extend their lead 3-0. 

Things settled down from there for quite a while but with five minutes to go, Jonathan Quick made another stellar save on Macklin Celebrini. It wasn’t a particularly busy night for the veteran netminder, but he certainly brought his A game into yet another must win type of game for the Rangers. With about three minutes to go in the second, Colin Graf collided hard with Quick which left him a little shaken but seemed to be fine. 

This brought the teams to two minutes of 4-on-4 to close out the period as Braden Schneider was called for holding and Graf for goaltender interference. The Rangers would start out the third shorthanded as Cuylle was called for hooking with 15 seconds left in the middle period. Overall, a much better showing through two periods of play as the Rangers were out-shooting the Sharks 22-13 and up 3-0. The big task would be closing things out with that lead intact. 

3rd Period:

The Sharks came out with some desperation but after three minutes, the Rangers made it a 4-0 game. A great off the rush attempt for Jonny Brodzinski set up a simple shot on goal that Georgiev had some trouble with and would likely want back. 

Two minutes after the goal, Ty Dellandrea took down Nicolas Aubè-Kubel in the defensive end of the ice to send him off for tripping and the Rangers back to the power play. It would be short lived as the stick of Mika Zibanejad got stuck in the skate of Barclay Goodrow. Despite Zibanejad letting go of the stick immediately, Goodrow fell down a few strides later as the stick was still caught in his skates, resulting in a bit of a weird penalty. 

With the teams skating at 4-on-4, J.T. Miller ended up throwing the puck on net after it banked off the boards behind the net to make it a 5-0 game. The puck was sitting just over the goal line as Adam Fox poked it in further. Miller was initially given credit for the goal but it would end up belonging to Adam Fox for his second of the night.

With just under eight minutes to go in the game, J.T. Miller blocked a shot with his hand that left him in a great deal of pain heading to the Rangers bench. Thankfully, he was able to return to action and as they were in the midst of killing off another penalty, Miller fed Trocheck with a perfect pass to put home another one making it a 6-0 game.

Mika Zibanejad nearly made it 7-0 on a breakaway but as play went the other way, K'Andre Miller failed to break up a play in the slot which resulted in a first NHL goal for Cam Lund. That would spoil the shutout for Quick who was just about two minutes away from what would have been a well-deserved one.

Nevertheless, the Rangers played the exact type of game they needed and got a long overdue pair of points. With that, the Rangers wrap up a pretty disappointing road trip on a high note and against all odds, are somehow back in the playoff picture. For now. They'll fly home tomorrow but have some time off as they're back at it at the Garden Wednesday Night to host the Minnesota Wild.