While New York City braves the blizzard, so are the Rangers.
On the same night the foreman had to make his decision to say goodbye to Tony DeAngelo, the team’s second-highest paid defender, the Rangers pulled back their third win of the season after a power play goal from Chris’s third period. Kreider to beat the Penguins 3-1 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers had scored only two goals in the third period and had not registered one in the last five games heading for Monday’s game. Kreider broke that streak at 11:10 of the final frame with a detour from a no-look shot of Adam Fox at the top of the zone.
Artemi Panarin secured an insurance title with a second left on the clock, in addition to two assists, to complete a three-point performance. As Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin recorded his second win of the season, turning aside 25 of the 26 shots he encountered, including nine saves in the last 20 minutes to secure the win.
General manager Jeff Gorton said ahead of the game that the team’s focus should be on winning, and the Rangers went out and plowed through a Penguins team they had lost against them in their three previous games.
“I just can’t say how proud I am of our group,” said head coach David Quinn after the win. “It was a very difficult 24, 36 hours and the way we play together.”
In addition to being without DeAngelo, the Rangers lost Kaapo Kakko to the COVID-19 Protocol list and recalled AHL Hartford’s Jonny Brodzinski for his first game in a Rangers uniform. Anthony Bitetto, who had been with the team’s taxi crew to start the season, also replaced DeAngelo for his Rangers debut.
To put even more pressure on the already exhausted Rangers line-up, defender Brendan Smith collided with Brandon Tanev for the first time at 5:12 PM and went straight to the locker room, where he was left with an upper body injury.
The Rangers were forced to roll with five defenders for the rest of the night.
Whether it was the collective inexperience of the lineup or the uncanny power of the Penguins to manage the puck, the Rangers received a slew of penalties throughout the match. They started both the second and third periods with the penalty kill due to fouls in the last two minutes of each frame.
Julian Gauthier, who had not played against the Devils since January 19, was called for holding on for minutes after the Rangers took the 2-1 lead to force them to play shorthand for the sixth time in the game. The Rangers ‘penalty-kill unit was their strongest component, however, and managed to avert all six of the Penguins’ chances for manpower.
The Rangers had one of their most competitive thirds this season so far, blocking seven shots and refusing to give the Penguins time and space.
“The way we played that third period was really good for us, we just moved forward and understood that we can win these games,” said Fox. “We have to play a certain way to do it.”
The Penguins took the lead from the first period for the third time in their last four games against the Rangers. Jason Zucker quickly took the puck off the boards and caught Shesterkin way out of the way and stopped him for the 1-0 score at 9:05.
But the Rangers took advantage of a delayed penalty call from Penguins with an extra skater on the ice later in the second game, as Kevin Rooney registered his second goal in as many games to tie it in.
“Listen, I know what our record is, we’ve felt pretty good about a lot of things we’ve done this year – I know that might sound crazy, but we really did,” said Quinn. ‘We just have to keep moving forward and keep building. We’ve got five of our last six points and we’re sticking around. “