Recap: Vesey Swings Rangers to 3-2 Win Over Detroit

No better cure to the midweek blues than an original six matchup. The Detroit Red Wings paid a visit to Broadway as they took on the Blueshirts for the second time this season. In their last meeting, the Rangers scored five in a row to take a demanding lead over Detroit in what ended up being a 5-3 game. This time around, the Red Wings would be without their Captain in Dylan Larkin and the Rangers would have Adam Fox back in his first game since being placed on LTIR at the beginning of the month. Additionally, it was a bit of a milestone night for  the Rangers Captain as this would be Jacob Trouba’s 700th career game in the NHL.

1st Period:

Only took two minutes for the Rangers to get the first big chance of the night as they would head to the power play following a hooking call on David Perron. With the Rangers starting quarterback reunited on power play one, the Rangers got a lot of good looks right off that bat. Each of their weapons on that line had quality chances with Fox at the head, Zibanejad in his office and Panarin moving along the right side of the ice. The man advantage was split pretty evenly between the two units with the second power play unit also putting up a valiant effort.

Perron returned to the ice and play continued as the score remained locked at zero and the teams settled into a fairly good pace. The Rangers headed back to the power play just over the midway point of the period as Olli Maatta got his stick caught up in Vincent Trocheck as he was cutting towards the slot. Very similar story to the Rangers first run on the man advantage. The top unit moved the puck really well and had a couple of great looks, the second unit fumbled its way through some minutes and the game remained scoreless.

With five minutes to go in the first, the Red Wings got their first power play chance as Jimmy Vesey tripped up Michael Rasumussen as the puck was coming out of Detroit’s zone. The Rangers did a great job of protecting the house and made it fairly difficult for the Red Wings to get anything set up.

At the end of one, the score was tied at zero with the Rangers leading in shots on goal at 11-7. Ville Husso was certainly the story for the Red Wings through the games first twenty as if it wasn’t for his efforts in net, the Rangers easily could have capitalized on a couple of those power play opportunities. As for the Blueshirts, the early signs pointed to it being a much better effort than their outing with Buffalo on Monday Night, but there were still some areas that could use some cleaning up, primarily in tight areas making simple plays.

2nd Period:

Detroit got off to a much better start in the second period, kicking it off with a strong shift that led to a couple of quality scoring chances. About five minutes in, a turnover from Shayne Gostisbehere was picked off by K’Andre Miller who dropped a pass back to Lafrenière on the rush. Lafrenière then passed it over to Artemiy Panarin who fired a wrist shot over a sliding Ville Husso to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead early in the second.

Not long after the goal, the Red Wings headed back to the power play as Panarin was called for roughing in the corner of the offensive zone. With twelve seconds remaining on the man advantage, Moritz Seider had the opportunity to walk the puck at the blue line. Once he got the shot off, there was plenty of traffic taking away the vision of Igor Shesterkin which allowed the puck to find the back of the net to tie the game up at one.

23 seconds later, Robby Fabbri let a shot go from the slot after Detroit won a couple of offensive zone puck battles to take a 2-1 lead. The Rangers were a bit caught off guard after the first goal which resulted in them sitting back and allowed for the Red Wings to take advantage of that.

The Rangers were quick to pick things back up and came up with a couple of chances to follow up the second Detroit goal. Not only were the Red Wings getting a good night out of Ville Husso, but their players were getting in front of a ton of Rangers shots. On top of that, the Red Wings were doing a great job of slowing the Rangers down which kept them from really getting their offense going the way we’ve seen them be able to this season.

Just over the midway mark of the game, Vincent Trocheck caught Lucas Raymond at center ice with his elbow up and his leg clipping Raymond’s, which left the Red Wings forward shaken up a bit. JT Compher and Vincent Trocheck ended up dropping the gloves but the officials held them off each other which prevented a proper fight from occurring. Trocheck got two minutes for the leg trip on Raymond and an additional two for the coincidental roughing penalty with Compher. This gave the Red Wings another power play that the Rangers were able to kill off.

There was a two minute stretch towards the finale of the second period full of end to end action with both team’s getting looks on odd man rushes and partial breakaways. Neither team would capitalize on the opportunities as both goalies stayed strong and the play eventually came to a stoppage. As time continued to dwindle, the Rangers would take a 2-1 deficit into the final intermission of regulation. Through two periods of play, the Red Wings had blocked 19 shots on top of the 22 shots on goal the Rangers were credited for. Despite trailing in the game, the Blueshirts outshot Detroit 22-16 but were outplayed for the most part and continued to find themselves not playing to their full potential.

3rd Period:

The Red Wings got off to another strong start in this period, as JT Compher was in all alone up close on Shesterkin following a beautiful saucer pass from Alex DeBrincat. Shesterkin came up with a big glove save to keep Detroit from building onto their existing lead.

Will Cuylle finished a hit on Gostisbehere that wasn’t directly from behind, but from behind enough to warrant a boarding penalty. Klim Kostin did not appreciate the hit and immediately went after Cuylle. Wasn’t much of a fight as Kostin got a punch or two in before the players fell to the ice but nevertheless, both players headed to the penalty box. Detroit was looking for a major penalty to be assigned to Cuylle but it was deemed a two minute minor for boarding which resulted in 4-on-4 play as Kostin was given two for roughing.

The Rangers had a big chance to tie the game up toward the end of the 4-on-4 as Vincent Trocheck just missed a wide open net at the doorstep of Husso. Zibanejad had set him up rather perfectly but somehow the puck redirected off his stick in a way that missed the net completely and went off into the corner. If you didn’t know any better, you may have thought that was Ryan Strome still out there for the Rangers.

Will Cuylle was on the brink of a real tough third period as he was initially assigned a double minor penalty for getting his stick up on Lucas Raymond which drew some blood. Upon review, it appeared that Raymond had actually grabbed the stick of Cuylle and in an attempt to throw it out of the way, clipped himself on the mouth. As a result, the officials reversed the call which negated what would have been a major disadvantage for the Rangers who were still looking for a way to climb back in this one. Definitely one of the weirder plays I’ve seen in all my years of watching the sport as it’s not every day a player grabs the stick of their opponent and accidentally hits themself in the face with it.

Just under eleven minutes to go in the third, the Rangers were able to hold the puck in Detroit’s zone and a feed from Mika Zibanejad resulted in a one-timer from K’Andre Miller that found the back of the net to tie the game up at two.

From the moment the officials reversed the call on Cuylle, the energy in the building started to pick up and the Rangers began to build off that, establishing a much quicker pace to their game. This of course didn’t slow down the Red Wings much as Shesterkin continued to come up with big saves to help keep his team in it. Lucas Raymond had another chance very similar to Compher’s at the start of the period that Shesterkin was able to shut down to keep the game tied.

Detroit headed back to the power play with about six and a half to go in regulation as Lafrenière was sent off for holding Jake Walman. The Rangers had a successful penalty kill that included a breakaway opportunity for Chris Kreider that was shut down by Ville Husso.

With the teams back to even strength, the Rangers ended up on a 3-on-1 and as Lafrenière let a hard shot go from the slot, Jimmy Vesey was able to chip at the rebound. The puck elevated off the glove of Husso and as it floated up, Vesey batted the puck out of mid air on the second rebound attempt which put the puck in the net to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead.

A perfectly executed play as Vesey cut it a little too close for comfort with his stick being just about as level as it can get with the crossbar. They ended up reviewing the call but the officials upheld it which meant the Rangers would have the lead.

What a story Jimmy Vesey continues to be. To think that he started the season as a healthy scratch, he now has five goals on the season as he continues to be an integral part of this team’s bottom six as well as an exceptional penalty killer.

With two minutes to go, Trocheck tripped up Daniel Sprong as he was breaking into the Rangers zone which would give Detroit a big advantage in trying to tie the game up. They held off on pulling Husso for the extra attacker as they got their power play situated but once they did, the chances kept coming. The Red Wings were the ones leading the charge in blocking shots all night but in the final minute of the game, it was the Rangers getting in front of everything Detroit tried throwing on net. Jacob Trouba came up with a pair of really key blocks and one more from Barclay Goodrow solidified the Rangers taking home a 3-2 win.

Final tally on shots would be 41-27 in favor of the Blueshirts and won 66% of face-offs which continues to be a difference maker in their success so far this year. While they went 0-2 on the power play, they killed off all but one of five penalties and did what they do best in finding a way to win. They’ll have the next two days off from games but are right back at it with another back to back this weekend that kicks off with a visit to Bridgestone Arena to take on one of the few teams that have beaten them this year, the Nashville Predators.