Madison Square Garden – If the New York Rangers wanted to see how they faired against the cream of the crop in their conference and division, they passed that test with flying colors Tuesday night.
New York scored three times in the final period to stage another late comeback and put an end to Carolina’s 11-game winning streak by a 5-3 final.
In a rematch of the Eastern Conference Semifinals from last season, the first two periods were anything but smooth for the Rangers.
“We looked like we were trying to defend a really good team and you can’t beat that team like that…they are quick and they are fast, and that’s how they play their game.” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant told reporters after the win.
It was Carolina who got out to the early advantage. They were also helped by key mistakes from the Blueshirts as well. New York would tie the game twice in the first two periods on the powerplay but would give up the lead in less than 30 seconds on both occasions.
“It was frustrating to give them those two goals and you have to be better than that. We had chances to get the puck over the blue line and we didn’t do it.” Gallant added.
Trailing 3-2 going into the third period, the Rangers’ misfortune quickly turned and transformed Madison Square Garden into a mad house with three unanswered goals in the period for the win.
The scoring barrage began early in the third when Artemi Panarin shot a prayer past Pyotr Kochetkov to tie the game at three just 36 seconds into the period. Midway through the third a Zibanejad shot was deflected by K’Andre Miller to give the Rangers their first lead of the night.
“We had a couple of cycles down in our corner. I saw (Kaapo) Kakko make a nice play to get it out to Mika and he was covering for one of us. I saw he was about to shoot and wound up so I just thought to screen the goalie and get something on it and luckily got a tip on it.” Miller said after the win.
A Filip Chytil empty-net powerplay goal late in the third would solidify the Rangers’ victory and end Carolina’s 11-game winning streak. It was the first time that Carolina lost a game in regulation when they had a lead going into the final period.
The win puts the Rangers in third place in the Metro division with a Thursday contest in Montreal coming up later in the week.
Game Notes
- The lucky streak between the Rangers and Giants head coach Brian Daboll continued Tuesday night. The coach that ended the Giants’ playoff drought of six years was in attendance at MSG and is now 2-0 on the season in attendance and was 5-0 during their playoff run last season.
- New York had four points from their defensive unit Tuesday night. With a total of 93 points recorded on the season, the Rangers are tied for second in the league in defensive points scored.
- Kaapo Kakko may have had just one assist in the win, but Gerard Gallant singled him out specifically calling the young forward “One of the best players we have in the last three games. The last three games he’s gone to another level.”
