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.
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