In New York Friday, the Los Angeles Kings were visiting the Rangers and were looking to rebound from a dreadful loss to the New Jersey Devils that snapped an eight-game win streak.
They found no luck on Broadwa
y as the Rangers found a way to two goals late in the third period for a 4-2 win.
With the game tied, 2-2, Rick Nash stole in the neutral zone and raced down the left wing to wrist a wicked shot past Jonathan Quick for the game-winner with less than four minutes left in regulation.
Chris Kreider scored on a deflection early in the first period off a shot from the point by Kevin Shattenkirk.
“I thought we played well,” Kings head coach John Stevens said. “I thought we had a good start to the game, we had good jump. Our forecheck was effective for us.
“We gave up a goal, a wrister from the point on the [penalty kill]. We gave up a goal on a poor face-off coverage in the offensive zone. Late in the game we should be in a position to get points. We played a lot better, but unforced errors ended up costing us points.”
Kevin Hayes also scored for New York.
The Rangers improved to 17-12-3 with the win and snapped a two-game skid (0-1-1).
“It’s not a team we see very often, but there were a lot of familiar faces on there and they’re a team that’s playing really well,” Nash said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge, and those are the games you get up for, and you want to make sure you’re prepared for it as best you can. We needed contributions from a lot of guys, the whole team, tonight.”
Marian Gaborik and Torrey Mitchell scored for the Kings who rallied earlier in the third to tie the game before Nash’s late heroics.
“It was a good test for us tonight and we played as close to a full 60 (minutes) as we have all season,” the Rangers’ Ryan McDonagh said.
Henrik Lundqvist made 33 saves for the win
“The key was to work with the [defense],” Lundqvist said. “They boxed out guys really well and I tried to hold on to as many pucks as I could. If you leave a rebound, there are two or three guys at the net just waiting for it.”
J.T. Miller ended the scoring with an empty-netter.
The loss dropped the Kings to 20-10-3.
[WATCH:Â All Kings vs. Rangers highlights]
Quick made 24Â saves in the loss.
“We were pretty solid defensively, we just had a few breakdowns, had odd-man rushes they happened to score on them,” Drew Doughty said after the loss. “Quick did make some big saves for us too, we had a lot of shots and a lot of opportunities, we just couldn’t find the net. We had a bunch that got tipped in front that hit Lundqvist. It’s a frustrating loss, like I said, but it’s over with.” –
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