The three-game sweep of the NHL from Monday night starts in Uniondale where the New York Islanders twice held two-goal advantages over their arch rival New York Rangers. But Kevin Klein‘s goal with less than five minutes left in regulation capped a furious third period rally by the Blueshirts and lifted the Rangers to a nearly improbable, 6-5, win.
“I thought it showed a lot of resilience,” Klein said. “Our first period wasn’t too great. I thought we did a great job of starting to get it going in the second, and our third period was Ranger hockey. That was great to see.”
For the Rangers it was a night break out games for several players including Martin St. Louis who scored the tying goal at 8:02 of the third. It was St Louis’ first goal in 15 games.
“Sometimes when you don’t score you think you’ll never score again,” St. Louis said. “You get one and you can get going.”
Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh scored twice to break out of his own little funk.
“We just told ourselves we’ve gotta find a way here and it’s going to feel real good,” McDonagh said. “Certainly it does right now. It was a great job by everybody sticking with it, sticking together and doing it as a team for sure.”
Cam Talbot had a shaky start including a brutal giveaway in his zone to the Isles John Tavares who scored with 11 seconds gone in the period.
“We had the puck, we protected it, and our forecheck was good,” Rangers’ Mark Staal said. “We were on our toes and we started winning foot races, winning battles.”
Talbot settled down, as much as one can settle in a five-goal game, to make 38 saves including 20 in the first period to get the win.
“Obviously you don’t come back very often in this league,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “It’s a tough league to come back when you’re down after two. From that standpoint it’s obviously good for our team. But on the other hand, at the end of the day it’s two points. This was our fourth game of this road trip. We’re going to take a day off and get back at it, get ready for Vancouver on Thursday.”
In Ottawa, the Senators lost a 6-3 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Of higher importance to the Senators were the injuries to goalie Robin Lehner and forward Clarke MacArthur in the second period. Both players eventually skated off the ice under their own power but neither returned to action.
“The way they collided, and then the way they went down, and you saw them not move … it’s scary,” Senators forward Bobby Ryan said. “You automatically think about them, and the goal becomes very secondary at that point.
“I think everybody wanted to come in and check on them, regroup. It is tough to automatically think you’ve got to go out there and you’re down by one at that point. The game doesn’t become secondary, but when you factor in health and friendships, it almost seems to.”
The Canes improved to 10-5-3 since the calendar moved to 2015.
“It was definitely scary to see two guys like that,” said McClement, who was a teammate of MacArthur’s with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “I wasn’t sure if I hit them or what. I just tried to get out of the way of the crossbar and it looked like Clarkie kind of hit the goalie.
“I feel bad. Clarkie is actually a good buddy so I hope they’re both okay.”
Carolina got goals from Jeff Skinner, Michal Jordan (first career NHL goal), Andrej Nestrasil, Nathan Gerbe, and Chris Terry.
“It was definitely a huge game for us. You don’t want to be on losing streak so I’m really glad we stopped it tonight,” Nestrasil said. “We played a really good game. We were really strong on the puck and making plays and good in the ‘D’ zone. We really deserved it tonight.”
Erik Condra, Mike Hoffman and Cody Ceci scored for Ottawa.
The Hurricanes Cam Ward made 29 saves for the win.
Andrew Hammond came in for Lehner and yielded two goals on five shots.
In Montreal, Carey Price picked up his fifth shutout of the year and made 25 saves to backstop the Habs to a 2-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
“These are the types of games you want to be good playing in because these are the type of games you’ll be playing in the spring (playoffs),” Price said.
Tomas Plekanec scored with 2:30 left in regulation to break the ice on the scoreboard and power the Habs to the win.
“Jumped off the bench. … I saw it was wide open in the middle of the ice and just tried to put myself in the best position to put it in the net,” Plekanec said.
Max Pacioretty added an empty net goal to seal the win.
“It was a check-fest,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “Not much happened. Not much room for either team, not many quality chances. There was good intensity and the next shot was going to win it. It’s a good experience for our guys.”
Jimmy Howard absorbed the loss for Detroit making 27 saves in the losing effort.
“It’s a tough one, but a great game to be a part of,” Howard said. “It definitely felt like a playoff game; no room, tough to get to both nets. It was a lot of fun.”
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