NY Rangers Game 27 Recap: NYR Ride Strong Three-Goal Final Period To Down Blues 6-4

For two periods last night, the Rangers again seemed destined to find a way to lose a game they had every chance to win. But, thankfully, the team displayed some of last season’s resilience, had a strong third period, and closed out St. Louis 6-4 to stave off another case of the blues (sorry, I had to) for one night.

The matchup at MSG featured two teams that have performed unevenly throughout most of the season, with both still trying to find consistency in their games. The action on the ice for the first 40 minutes reflected that. The Rangers jumped out to three separate one-goal leads, only to have the Blues tie the game up each time.

The game started slowly, as both teams had issues generating any offense. There was no scoring until a Braden Schneider snipe to the far high side at 17:14 into the period gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. That one tally seemed to wake up both teams as the Blues stormed back and tied it up only 1:10 later as Pavel Buchenvich lightly tapped in a dirty goal that just snuck over the line. It continued an eerie and predictable trend of former Rangers returning and scoring against them.

It also continued a disturbing tendency of the Rangers to kill any momentum they generate by letting the other team score immediately after they do. Luckily, that was not the case last night. It’s been even more damaging this season, as their offense has been unable to counter.

The Blueshirts soon found themselves on the power play late in the period, and they wasted no time taking the lead back with an Adam Fox shot from the point.

The Rangers entered the second with a 2-1 lead with hopes of reversing their fortunes of late in the middle period. The Blues coming in, had been the worst team in the league regarding goal differential in this frame. However, as with most metrics, you throw these stats out the window when it applies to the Rangers. Vladimir Tarasenko scored a mere twelve seconds into the period, and the game was tied again before the fans returning from intermission could get back to their seats.

To their credit, the Rangers’ offense was up to the task in this game, mainly due to finally taking a shoot-first approach and a shaky Jordan Binnington. An Artemi Panarin shot was aided by a Vincent Trocheck tip, and the Rangers had their third lead of the game.

Unfortunately, their defensive lapses and habit of losing their structure for long stretches bubbled up again. The breakdown helped lead to two goals only a minute+ apart by Kyrou and O’Reilly, and the Rangers found themselves entering the third period down by a goal.

In the past, this wouldn’t be cause for concern. This season though, when it relates to leads or deficits entering the final period, these teams were on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Blues were 5-0 when leading entering the 3rd period. Conversely, the Rangers were 0-7 when trailing after two periods.

The Rangers picked a fantastic time to buck those trends and put forth one of their best periods of the season. It coincided with Gallant trying to spark things by putting Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko on a line with Mika. It paid dividends as that line was energized all period and seemed to ignite the whole team.

The period didn’t start that way, yet the Rangers shook off yet another puck off the post by Kaapo Kakko (who missed an excellent shorthanded chance earlier in the game with a sizzling move that couldn’t find the net) to tie the game on a K’andre Miller shot from the point. It was Miller’s first of the season, and the goal injected life back into the Garden.

It had a ripple effect as the Rangers kept applying offensive zone pressure. It ended up paying off as a seemingly harmless Zibanejad shot found the stick of Alexis Lafreniere for yet another deflected goal that gave the team a 5-4 lead.

One more piece of adversity crept up as the Rangers took their 5th penalty of the night. However, it provided the dagger instead, as Chris Kreider corralled a loose puck at center ice for a shorthanded breakaway with just under six minutes left to sweep one past Binnington and effectively end the game.

It’s premature to predict if this win will serve as a springboard for the Rangers to become a top-tier team again. Despite the 3rd period breakout, the game was still rife with mistakes, lapses, and missed opportunities. Yet, the evidence will immediately present with two tough road matchups against Vegas and Colorado. If the Blueshirts can find victories in these two contests, we can possibly look at last night’s game as a turning point. Until then, at least it was a game where we saw the team remember how to finish strong and find a way to win. Let’s hope that starts to become the norm again.

In this week's episode we discuss NYR's playoff hopes, Quick's extension, Kreider, etc.How to support us and our sponsors:Columbia Sports ApparelESPN+ SubscriptionFanaticsDraft Kings – CODE ITRThanks for listening! Please rate and review our show on your favorite listening platform. Check out our partner's website at www.insidetherink.com for all your latest hockey news.
  1. 68 Down & We Needed This 1
  2. Dead at the Deadline
  3. Somebody Kaliyev Me Please
  4. 4 Nations Break
  5. Too Good to Tank, Too Bad to Rank

Discover more from Inside The Rink

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Marc Panzer

NYR Fan living in Long Island

Leave a Reply

Adam Proteau

Catching up With Adam Proteau of The Hockey News

With the trade deadline behind us and teams pushing toward the Stanley Cup playoffs, I figured now was as good a time as ever to conduct an email interview with the great Adam Proteau of The Hockey News. Adam was kind enough to take time out of his busy writing schedule to give us his […]

Read More
Todd McLellan behind the bench

March Contiues to Be a Month That Sinks the Detroit Red Wings Playoff Hopes

March has been the part of the NHL schedule that has caused the Detroit Red Wings the most trouble in the past three seasons. In two of these three seasons, the Red Wings were led by former head coach Derek Lalonde. The Red Wings had a record of 3-11 in March of 2024 under Lalonde. […]

Read More
New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes celebrates a first-period goal against the Minnesota Wild.

New Jersey Devils Take Down Wild in a Shootout to Sweep the Season Series

The New Jersey Devils defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-2 in a shootout on Monday night at the Prudential Center, sweeping the home-and-home season series between the two. Looking to end a three-game winless streak at home, the Devils put together another 60-plus minute effort that earned them a resilient and well-deserved win over a team […]

Read More

Notifications

Error: Episode unavailable - Open in a new tab