Rangers Snap Skid With 4-3 Victory Over Hurricanes
It wasn't perfect Monday night at Madison Square Garden, but it was a win, and two points, and the end to a three-game losing streak, as the Rangers skated to a 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Facing the prospects of their first four-game losing streak since the 2013-14 season, the Rangers instead beat Carolina for the 11th consecutive time on Garden ice. It was also New York's 18th victory in their last 19 games overall against the Hurricanes.
The Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period despite being outshot 10-6. Handed a power play just 64 seconds into the game, the Rangers struck five seconds into the man advantage when Mats Zuccarello zipped his team-leading 11th goal past Carolina goalie Cam Ward at 1:09, just the start New York had hoped for coming off a 3-0 home-ice loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
New York scored its second power play goal of the period--and fifth in the past five games--at 18:23 of the first when Oscar Lindberg buried a shot from the slot off a Dan Boyle feed. The goal was Lindberg's ninth of the season, and the assist was Boyle's second in the opening period, a nice boost for the veteran defenseman after being a healthy scratch the previous two games.
The two power play goals represented the first time this season that the Rangers had scored more than one on the power play in any game.
Carolina cut the Blueshirts lead in half just 1:40 into the second on a Jordan Staal goal; but only 44 seconds later the Rangers answered back when Chris Kreider caught Ward napping with a quick shot from right wing that beat the Hurricanes netminder through the pads. Kreider's fourth goal of the season was his first in eight games.
At that point in the game New York had scored three goals on only seven shots against Ward. It became four goals on 12 shots when Kevin Hayes and Derick Brassard teamed up on a Rangers goal at the 15:49 mark of the second period.
As the Rangers finished killing off a penalty to Hayes, Ward collected a loose puck in his own end and threw it towards his own blue line. Hayes, though, charged out of the penalty box, intercepted the attempted clear right before it reached the blue line, and proceeded to skate in at Ward before dishing the puck to a wide-open Brassard to Ward's left. Brassard rifled his seventh goal into the back of the cage giving the Blueshirts a 4-1 lead.
New York was outshot 14-8 in the second period and Henrik Lundqvist was exceptionally sharp between the pipes. However with 2:01 to play in the period Carolina's Victor Rask managed to beat Lundqvist through the five-hole, cutting the Rangers lead to 4-2.
That lead became a bit more precarious when the Hurricanes pulled to within 4-3 on a Chris Terry breakaway goal 8:23 into the third period. Moments later Rick Nash missed on a breakaway of his own, leaving the home team to sweat out a one-goal lead.
For much of the night the Rangers were forced to play with five defensemen as Kevin Klein suffered a strained muscle, according to the team, early in the first period and did not return to action after his fourth and final shift of the game ended 6:31 into play.
FINAL BOXSCORE:
FINAL NY RANGERS 4 CAROLINA HURRICANES 3
Scoring Summary
1st Period
01:09 NYR PPG - Mats Zuccarello (11) Wrist shot - ASST: Derick Brassard (10) 1 - 0 NYR
18:23 NYR PPG - Oscar Lindberg (9) Slapshot - ASST: Dan Boyle (5), Keith Yandle (12) 2 - 0 NYR
2nd Period
01:40 CAR Jordan Staal (5) Snap shot - ASST: Andrej Nestrasil (2), Joakim Nordstrom (3) 2 - 1 NYR
02:24 NYR Chris Kreider (4) Wrist shot - ASST: Jesper Fast (4) 3 - 1 NYR
15:49 NYR Derick Brassard (7) Snap shot - ASST: Kevin Hayes (9) 4 - 1 NYR
17:59 CAR Victor Rask (8) Snap shot - ASST: Elias Lindholm (4), Jaccob Slavin (1) 4 - 2 NYR
3rd Period
08:23 CAR Chris Terry (3) Backhand shot - ASST: Jeff Skinner (2), Ron Hainsey (4) 4 - 3 NYR
Penalty Summary
1st Period
01:04 CAR Brett Pesce Tripping - 2 min against Rick Nash
06:54 NYR Dan Boyle Delaying Game-Puck over glass - 2 min against Jaccob Slavin
12:04 NYR Oscar Lindberg Interference - 2 min against Riley Nash
12:44 CAR Eric Staal Hooking - 2 min against Jesper Fast
18:11 CAR John-Michael Liles Interference - 2 min against Dominic Moore
2nd Period
11:25 CAR Kris Versteeg Tripping - 2 min against Oscar Lindberg
13:43 NYR Kevin Hayes Tripping - 2 min against Justin Faulk
3rd Period
16:11 CAR John-Michael Liles Cross checking - 2 min against Mats Zuccarello
16:11 NYR Mats Zuccarello Tripping - 2 min against John-Michael Liles
shots by period
Period CAR NYR
1st 10 6
2nd 14 8
3rd 12 8
Total 36 22
Team Stats
Category CAR NYR
Power Plays 0/3 2/4
Hits 12 26
Faceoff Wins 29 25
Giveaways 13 18
Takeaways 5 9
Blocked Shots 9 25
Penalty Minutes 10 8
Three Stars of the Game
1st
Derick Brassard
C
G: 1 Shots: 4
A: 1 Hits: 2
PTS: 2 PIM: 0
+/-: 0 TOI: 18:35
New York Rangers
2nd
Elias Lindholm
C
G: 0 Shots: 6
A: 1 Hits: 1
PTS: 1 PIM: 0
+/-: 1 TOI: 21:14
Carolina Hurricanes
3rd
Mats Zuccarello
RW
G: 1 Shots: 1
A: 0 Hits: 0
PTS: 1 PIM: 2
+/-: 0 TOI: 16:59
YOUR NY RANGERS STARS OF THE GAME
1. DERICK BRASSARD
2. MATS ZUCCARELLO
BROADWAY HAT GOES TO #20 CHRIS KREIDER!
NEXT GAME: Wednesday December 2. The NY Rangers head to Brooklyn to take on the Islanders 8:00 PM NBCSN.
No comments:
Post a Comment