No lead is safe against the New York Rangers. Especially when they are playing as well offensively as they have during their recent winning streak.
The Rangers came back from a 4-1 deficit to stun Connor McDavid and the Oilers in a shootout, 5-4 Friday night in Edmonton.
McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins jumped on the road-weary Rangers early in the first period. Edmonton’s high-powered offense blitzed Igor Shesterkin early with four first-period goals and left the ice with a 4-1 lead after one.
New York and Shesterkin would keep the Oilers off the scoreboard the rest of the way while the offense would creep back into the contest.
It started with Chris Kreider netting his second special team goal of the game in the second period, his last being short-handed that kept the Rangers within two going into the final frame. Two goals by Alexis Lafreniere and Mika Zibanejad would send the game into overtime, and eventually a shootout.
From there, the goalie who many questioned if he would be pulled early came through when it mattered most.
After giving up the first goal in the shootout to Nugent-Hopkins, Shesterkin shut down some of the top scorers on the planet in consecutive fashion. McDavid, Draisaitl, and several other players failed to solve the reigning Vezina winner. Shesterkin would finish the night saving 25 of 29 shots but did not give up a goal for the remainder of the contest after a rough start.
Finally, in the sixth and final round following another brilliant Shesterkin save, Lafreniere would get his backhand shot past Jack Campbell and send the Rangers to their seventh straight win, and completing a remarkable comeback.
The seventh straight win is the second time this season the Rangers have hit the plateau. It’s the first time in franchise history the team has had multiple seven-game winning streaks in the same year. The three-goal comeback was also the team’s first since 2019.
New York, with the stunning victory, moved to 33-14-8 on the season and just a point behind the New Jersey Devils for second place in the Metro division. They will be back on the ice tomorrow night against Calgary.
Game Notes
- Friday night was full of continual streaks for New York. Zibanejad’s goal was his 30th of the season and marked the third time as a Ranger he reached that mark. He is one of 11 players in franchise history to notch the benchmark three or more times.
- New York is on a nine-game point streak. It’s the first nine-game streak the team has had since 2015-16 when the previous squad got to 13 straight games with a point.
- The Kid Line continued their dominance Friday night. Lafreniere’s goal was the fifth time in six games that the former top overall selection recorded a point. Kaapo Kakko, who received an assist on the play, recorded points in six of his last seven games.
