The sweep of the NHL schedule from Rivalry Night starts in New York where the Rangers hosted the Chicago Blackhawks and lost 1-0 on a goal from Brad Richards, his 11th of the year.
Scott Darling made 25 saves for the shutout win.
“It was an impressive performance [by Darling],” Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. “He’s a big goalie and there’s not a lot to shoot at. He’s aggressive and for a guy who hasn’t played very much he was confident in his ability. That rubs off on everybody, so he was big part of the win.”
It was Darling’s first NHL shutout.
“I’m just thrilled; it’s an amazing stage to [get a shutout] at Madison Square Garden,” Darling said. “It feels great to just get back in the net and do my job. This is one of the most famous arenas in the world against one of the most iconic jersey’s there is. An ‘Original Six’ matchup on the NBC Sports Network; you really can’t ask for much more.”
Corey Crawford had the night off in the Hawks net.
“It’s getting to that time of year where teams do whatever it takes to get points and we got great goaltending and couple of big [penalty] kills and a huge and fitting goal for [Richards],” Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews said. “It was nice to come in here and steal two [points].”
The Rangers missed a chance to take advantage of their games-n-hand.
“I wish we could have had a little better of a shooting mentality,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said. “We had some rushes where we were trying to make some passes, some prettier plays, but it just didn’t seem to be clicking as much for us.”
In Edmonton, the Oilers hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets and lost 4-3 in a shootout.
Curtis McElhinney made 44 saves for the Jackets to get the win.
“Tonight our goaltender was great, he was the difference in the game,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “They were faster than us and I think some of that had to do with the long day of travel we had [Tuesday] to get here. It was also a long day sitting at the hotel waiting for the 8 p.m. game. That’s no excuse though; we have to find ways to be better. But they were faster and it looked like we were missing some energy and we didn’t have what we needed to keep up with them.”
Curtis McElhinney made 44 saves in win over Oilers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle gave credit to McElhinney for stopping the Oilers.
“We played well, we had our opportunities to finish them off and put the puck in the net and we didn’t capitalize,” Eberle said. “You have to give their goalie credit, he played well. And when you get to a shootout it’s anybody’s game.”
David Savard, Ryan Johansen and Mark Letestu scored for the Jackets in regulation.
“It’s always nice to get into a game and get some shots early,” McElhinney said. “That certainly helped my cause. I think the big issue for me, and the team, has been bad first periods and getting behind by a few goals. So tonight was a nice way to start the game. We put ourselves in some situations that we wouldn’t have liked to be in, but for the most part, we found a way to squeak it out.”
The Oilers picked up regulation goals from Derek Roy, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov.
“We played very well in the first period and had a lot of chances on the power play,” Yakupov said. “I think that is how we have to play. We had a couple of posts and were kind of unlucky tonight. We played a good game and had lots of chances, but Columbus had their chances too and scored on them.”
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