In Newark, the New York Rangers were outshot by the New Jersey Devils, 21-17, on Tuesday, but managed to come away with a 3-1 win.
Coupled with the Carolina Hurricanes loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, the Rangers moved to within two points of the Atlantic top spot.
Alexandar Georgiev made 20 save for the Rangers win.
“Good teams have to make sure those losing streaks don’t stay long and we managed to play smart hockey when we needed to today,” Georgiev said. “In the second period there wasn’t much going on, but we were leading and kind of played the score. That was huge.”
Yegor Sharangovich was the lone goal scorer for New Jersey, his strike put the Rangers down 0-1 in the first period.
“At this time of the year you can draw it up any way you want, we’re looking for those two points to fight for home ice [in the playoffs],” Strome said. “We felt in control even when it wasn’t pretty. That’s a sign of a maturing team and a confident team.”
New York improved to 45-20-6.
The Rangers scored twice off the power play, including Ryan Strome‘s goal in the first period to tie the game, 1-1.
Chris Kreider set a franchise record with 24 power play goals later in the opening period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead, it was his 47th strike of the season.
“I think it’s just a testament to our power play,” Kreider said. “I mean, the guys that I’m playing with are amazing. So many weapons. Obviously, you’ve got to respect [Ryan Strome] in the middle, or else he’s going to put the puck under the bar. … Obviously, no one knows what the [heck] [Artemi Panarin] is doing. He’s just throwing so much misdirection at the other team opening lanes. If you’re going to take away ‘Artie’ and leave Mika [Zibanaejad], Mika is going to burn you. And Adam Fox is the reigning Norris Trophy winner.
“Those guys get the puck to me in the right spot at the right times. At the end of the day, it’s a testament to the five-man unit.”
Kreider’s power play goal came after Sharangovich was given an instigator penalty on a fight with the Rangers’ Braden Schneider .
“I think he probably overreacted a little bit,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said of Sharangovich. “It was a good hit, nothing that was wrong. I’ll never criticize when a teammate comes to defense of another teammate. I think he may have thought [Schneider] jumped when he hit him.”
Schneider leveled New Jersey’s Jesper Boqvist in the neutral zone.
“It was a good, solid hit,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “He stepped up in the neutral zone and obviously we got the power-play goal off that, so that was huge for us. A little emotion in the game.”
Justin Braunscored off a slap shot from the blue .line early in the third period to give New York a 3-1 lead, it as his first goal since being acquired by New York at the trade deadline.
“We gave up three or four shots in the last 40 minutes, you don’t see that very often,” Ruff said. “We probably had four or five good looks, and a couple we missed the net on, a couple he made good saves on. It just turned into [a] power-play game.”
Nico Daws made 14 saves in the New Jersey loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.