As the season rolls along the Rangers’ slogan of “No Quit in New York” has begun to show in some of the most important games of the year.
New York came back from deficits multiple times Tuesday night to earn a key shootout win over the Minnesota Wild 4-3.
“I felt really good about our game tonight. It was a good solid effort from our group.” Rangers’ head coach Gerard Gallant said after the win.
The Rangers fell behind early in the first period when after hitting the post multiple times, Kirill Kaprizov and Jon Merrill would make New York pay with scores. Making his return to the Garden after being traded in November, Ryan Reaves recorded his fifth assist of the season on the Kaprizov goal.
Down by two in the second, the Rangers would turn their play up a notch and get right back into the contest in their first comeback of the night.
K’Andre Miller would kick things off with a steal and breakaway score to get the Rangers back within one. Then after dual penalties to Alexis Lafreniere and Brandin Duhaime started a four-on-four battle, Adam Fox would tie the game with his 8th goal of the season, and extended his point streak to five games.
Miller later touted Fox’s game after the win saying “Adam’s such a special player. I get the pleasure of sitting on the bench and watching him do his thing. He does so many little things right for our team offensively and defensively.”
Former Ranger Matt Zuccarello’s 17th goal of the season would put Minnesota back in front in the third period, and dim the Rangers’ hopes for a win. New York’s situation seemed even direr when their leading scorer, Chris Kreider left the game in the third period and did not return.
Without two starting forwards, the Rangers still provided plenty of chances and eventually cashed in when a scrum in front of the net was ended when Filip Chytil tied the game at 3 and sent Tuesday’s contest to overtime.
Neither team would score in the extra frame, while Zuccarello and Kaapo Kakko would both score to start things off in the shootout. It wasn’t until Artemi Panarin came up in round three that the Rangers sent the home crowd happy.
“Fortunately for us, breadman was pretty good in the shootout and Kaapo Kakko was pretty good so again, I thought we deserved to win that hockey game.” Gallant later added.
The win moved New York to 23-12-7 and back into third place in the Metro division. They will be back on the ice Thursday at home when they take on the Dallas Stars.
Game Notes
- Reaves made headlines even before the Rangers and Wild took to the ice Tuesday saying he wished New York was more transparent before being traded. Gallant responded later in the afternoon saying he was “surprised” by his comments.
- Johnny Brodzinski returned to the ice and replaced Sammy Blais in the lineup Tuesday night.
- Kreider wasn’t the only forward that exited Tuesday’s contest. Julien Gauthier also left after one period of play and did not return due to an upper-body injury. Gallant did not give an update on either injured player: only that they’ll be reevaluated tomorrow.
