In New York, it was another of the patented Rangers game this season. They seem to enjoy whistling past the graveyard for long stretches of games.
They did it Monday night in the first period and escaped with a 1-0 lead off Chris Kreider’s 30th goal of the season, his strike came off the power play.
The goal came with 1.5 seconds left in the frame.
The second period was different in that the Los Los Angeles Kings hit for a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
LA had beaten the Rangers early in the month in a similar game scheme for the Blueshirts.
Barclay Goodrow’s third period goal forced extra time and eventually the skills competition.
The entire extra session was played without a whistle.
Adam Fox was credited with the deciding goal in the skills portion of the evening’s affairs for a 3-2 win for the Rangers.
“I think he should be one of our top shooters,” New York head coach Gerard Gallant said. “I think after tonight’s goal he’s going to get a lot of confidence from it. He’s got skill, he’s got talent and he made an incredible move. I talked to him earlier in the year about going [in the shootout] and he said, ‘No, I don’t feel comfortable going.’ I think that’s going to change now.”
Alex Iafallo and Blake Lizotte were the strikers for the Kings in the middle frame.
“We stuck with it,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “Couldn’t quite hang on at the end, but our penalty kill came up big to preserve at least a point. When it gets to the shootout, toss a coin.
“For the most part, quite happy with the effort, happy with the type of game we attempted to play. To hold that team to 16 even-strength shots on goal through 65 minutes probably doesn’t happen very often.”
The Kings fell to 21-16-6.
“It’s bittersweet,” LA’s Anze Kopitar said. “Yeah, three out of four [points] is OK. I guess if it was the other way around, we got one yesterday and two today I would have been a little bit more happy sitting with you guys (members of the media) here. But in the grand scheme of things, if we’re going to go three out of four the rest of the trip, it’s going to be a pretty good trip.”
Goodrow scored with 5:45 left in the third period to get the Rangers even, 2-2, his strike was redemption for a double minor in the second period leading to the Kings advantage..
New York improved to 28-11-4.
“I was debating between two [moves], stuck with that one and glad I chose it,” Fox said. “The one I did I’m comfortable doing that. I didn’t want to overcomplicate anything, so I just made a little fake and I’m glad it worked out.”
At some point, the Rangers have to gain a little more maturity, and listen to their head coach; put teams away with the offense they have on paper.
Jonathan Quick made 28 saves in the LA loss.
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