NEW YORK (NY) – Defenseman Nick Holden and forward Derek Stepan recorded two goals apiece to help the New York Rangers receive a 4-3 win in their last home game of the 2016 year. Antti Raanta stopped 33 of 36 shots for the win while Mike Condon of the Ottawa Senators stopped 21 of 25.
Raanta started in place of Henrik Lundqvist who was out with the flu while Condon has been named the started after Craig Anderson (personal) and Andrew Hammond (ankle) are unavailable.
Rangers seem to pick up right where they left off after the holiday break; lackadaisical. In the previous two games going into break the Rangers lost on a combined score of 14-6. After the first three minutes of the game they were already in a hole, down 2-0. The goals came from Mark Borowiecki, who recorded his first of the year and Zach Smith.
Holden got the Rangers on the board 11:37 into the first, which helped give the Garden crowd some life.
Cody Ceci helped silence the crowd once again when he recorded his first of the year with 3:04 left in the fist.
The Rangers wouldn’t let up another goal for the rest of the game and scored three unanswered to end their two game losing skid.
2:45 into the second period Derek Stepan scored his first of the game only moments after their power-play expired. He would record his second of the game 12 minutes and 10 seconds later, this time on the power-play to tie the game for the first time since two minutes into the first period.
“I really liked a lot of things that we did after (playing) a very similar style (in the) two games prior to tonight,” said Stepan “We responded extremely well tonight, which in the last two games we had none of it. Tonight we had all of it. We responded the exact way we need to.”
Holden got the only goal of the third period, also on the power-play, on a wrap-around 6:31 into the third.
“I was lost down there,” Holden joked. “Got two lucky ones … I just wrapped it towards the net and try to get the puck there.”
His goal came after a failed push from four Rangers crashing the net on the man-advantage, but the notable part came moments later. After missing the first time, Holden stayed in front of Condon while defenseman Brady Skjei was the only man holding down the blue line. Matt Puempel kicked the puck out to Skjei at the point who threw it back around the net to Holden, who was able to wrap it in for his second of the night.
“I was lost down there,” joked Holden. “Got two lucky ones … I just wrapped it towards the net and try to get the puck there.”
Though Raanta let in two goals in the first three minutes, he played remarkably the for the last 40.
“The guys did an unreal job in the last two periods to bail me out,” Raanta said. “The third period was a really good example of that. We scored a goal and then the last 10 minutes the puck was pretty much in our end. It was a great job by the guys. They were blocking shots and we were playing like we used to play. It was a great feeling to get the win.”
Raanta stopped 33 of the last 34 Senators shots.
Defenseman Ryan McDonagh would do some contributing himself with three helpers on the night.
The Rangers will head to Arizona to face Shane Doan and the Coyotes at 9pm Thursday night.
The Senators will head home to host the Detroit Red Wings Thursday at 8pm.
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