In Chicago, another wake up call was sounded for the New York Rangers front office to listen to. The question is whether or not anyone will hear it.
On Friday night, the Rangers took a 3-1 lead into the third period against the Blackhawks.
Chicago outshot the Rangers, 12-3, in the third and Igor Shesterkin reverted to form in yielding two goals, leading to an extra session.
The Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad bailed everyone out when he scored midway through extra time for a 4-3 win.
“We got a 3-on-2, ‘Kreids’ makes an unbelievable play, freezes the goalie and the defender,” Zibanejad said. “Try to get it on net and it went in, so I was relieved. I thought we did an OK job in the first after they got the lead. They work hard, give them credit. They’re fast. There’s execution and maybe slow decision-making at times that put us in trouble. It’s not a great performance, but at the end of the day, it’s easy to look at it and demand more from ourselves when we get the two points and move on.”
The victory was the Rangers fourth straight.
Shesterkin made 28 saves in the win. Keep in mind this was Chicago, not a playoff. contender
“Igor looked good,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “If you look at the goals, there’s not a lot he can do on them.”
A good goalie would make at least one of those stops.
The Rangers need to ride Jonathan Quick down the stretch.
Shesterkin gave up another early, soft goal when Alex Vlasic scored at 2:39 of the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead to Chicago.
“I think I’ve been trying to work on my shot quite a bit this year,” Vlasic said. “I feel like I’ve gotten quite a few chances that I haven’t been able to capitalize on, and that’s an area in the second half here that I’m trying to get a little better at and contribute offensively.”
Alexis Lafreniere knotted the game, 1-1, when he sniped home a shot from the right circle at 4:49 of the first.
“We got two points,” Laviolette said. “We’re in the business of winning, so we’ll take the points and go home. Coming back off the [All-Star] break and playing the games the way we did, travel, get here, it was obviously not a clean night for us. We’ll address those things after the day off and get ready for the next one.
“I would imagine nobody’s really happy with the way we played. I’m pretty honest. If I think we played all right and lost, I’ll let you know that. It was not one of our better efforts. We walk away with the two points. The win’s in the column. We’ll fix some things, and we’ll be better next game.”
Chris Kreider tipped in a pass from Adam Fox at 6:16 for a 2-1 lead going into the middle frame. The Rangers dominated play and toyed with Chicago, especially on the Kreider goal.
Chicago dropped to 14-35-3 off their sixth straight loss.
“We’re one step closer to our result that we want, but I think that resiliency’s a great word,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “That describes our group. That’s a pretty talented group we were playing against, and we wanted to play our game plan, and I think for the most part, we stuck to it.
“That consistency was good for us in the third period and obviously we played desperate, pulled the goalie and had a goal. But I think the guys, it’s just their work ethic. We’ve been kind of on this for maybe over a month now that I’ve been very happy with the work ethic. We haven’t gotten the results most nights. But we’re inching closer every time.”
Midway through the second period, Jonny Brodzinski potted a rebound of a shot from the left side by Kaapo Kakko for a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.
“I think we had our chances to put a couple in the net,” Brodzinski said. “But for the most part, I think it was just us trying to make cute plays.
In the third, the Rangers sat back to protect the lead and gave up too much ice with a soft goaltender.
Nick Foligno trimmed the Chicago deficit to 3-2 at 13:37.
Jason Dickinson forced the extra session when he tipped in a shot by Seth Jones with 62 seconds left on the regulation clock. 
Petr Mrazek made 32 saves in the loss.
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