NEW YORK (NY) – The Rangers continued their impressive home record against Carolina when they defeated the Hurricanes 6-3 at Madison Square Garden. Backup net minder Alexander Georgiev recorded his first win at MSG with 41 saves to improve his record to 2-2 on the year.
“He looks very confident back there and calm” defenseman Brady Skjei said of his new rookie goalie, “looks like he’s making the right plays and cutting off the angles”.
Four Rangers recorded multiple points in the game, including Mats Zuccarello (2-0-0), Pavel Buchnevich (0-3-3), Mika Zibanejad (0-3-3) and Jimmy Vesey who recorded his first career hat trick.
“It took me all four years in college to get [a hat trick], so it’s nice to have one” the sophomore explained. “It’s something I’ll always remember, it was a great feeling.”
The Rangers, who haven’t won at home since February 9th against the Calgary Flames, snapped a four game home losing streak.
Scott Darling got the nod for the Hurricanes tonight, stopping 17 shots.
Teuvo Teravainen, Lee Stempniak and Victor Rask all tallied a goal in the contest as they have now lost 15 straight games to the Rangers at The Garden.
Zuccarello opened up the scoring when a blast from defenseman Neal Pionk went wide right and shot out to the opposite side where the Finish winger got his 13th of the year. His 14th of the year would come in the form of an empty net with 3:37 left in the game.
Each of the first three Rangers goals were met with a Carolina response. Teravainen got his 20th of the year off the stick of Sebastian Aho just 5:26 after New York’s first goal.
Vesey opened up the scoring in the second period when Buchnevich, temporarily acting as a center, pushed the puck forward off the face-off and found an open Vesey alone in front. Former Ranger Stempniak got just his second goal of the year when he followed a loose puck in front to jam home the rebound.
One of the newly acquired Rangers, Vladislav Namestnikov, has impressed since his arrival from the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 25-year-old notched his second goal with his new squad off a smooth deflection from the hashmarks when Buchnevich threw an innocent show on net from the point.
The Hurricanes remain persistent and answered back in the third period to tie the game off the stick of Victor Rask for a power-play goal.
Vesey’s nicest goal of the trio came in the form of a snap shot in the third period when an extra effort from Buchnevich resulted in a racing match that Vesey won and sniped his 13th of the year over the right shoulder of Darling.
New York never looked back and scored two more empty net goals.
The Rangers are now 4-2-1 in their last seven and trail a wild card spot by nine points.
With the loss the Hurricanes now trail a wildcard spot by seven points.
Fun Fact – via Elias Sports Bureau
It appears the league “record” is 34 letters, which was done several times, including once by the @NYRangers. On Feb. 27, 1986, Ron Greschner scored, assisted by Reijo Ruotsalainen and John Vanbiesbrouck. #NYR #history https://t.co/W9bSQtt5et
— Elias Sports Bureau (@EliasSports) March 13, 2018
This answer was prompted when announcer Kenny Albert wondered what the record for most letters were on a score sheet, when the Rangers tallied a goal by Namestnikov assisted by Buchnevich and Zibanejad.
No clue how Elias was able to pull up that stat so fast, but cool nonetheless.
Follow Danny on Twitter: @Danny_PJones
You must be logged in to post a comment.