Rangers, Islanders, St. Patrick’s Day at the Garden. It doesn’t get much better than that and up until the final buzzer, the game lived up to the hype. There was a playoff type of atmosphere in this one and the two teams carried that through fast paced, physical hockey. This rivalry is going to be thrilling to watch over the years with Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin tending the nets on either end and that was exemplified throughout the game last night. The Rangers out-shot the Islanders and certainly out chanced them as Sorokin made a couple of highlight reel saves, stealing this one from the Rangers.
A high intensity, scoreless first period set the tone for this one and Sorokin heated up early, making a save of the year candidate save, robbing Mika Zibanejad of a goal with the paddle of his stick. Tensions were rising, especially when Ryan Reaves bounced Zdeno Chara right off him. Despite the physicality and some discussions on the ice, the refs kept the whistles away for most of the period until Barclay Goodrow got called for hooking late in the period. Rangers killed off most of the penalty with some time being carried into the second.
Right out of the gate, the Islanders got back to work and with one second left on the power play, Anders Lee buried a quick snap shot right in the slot to beat Shesterkin and get his team on the board. The penalties picked up as the refs began making calls, many of which were questionable. Especially late in the period when Ryan Strome got called for roughing and then Brock Nelson for interference. Almost seemed like they realized they made a mistake calling Strome for a penalty so they decided to call Nelson for one to even it up.
Although prior to those two calls, Scott Mayfield was rightfully awarded an interference penalty. The Rangers power play went to work and the league leader in power play goals would knot this game up at one as Chris Kreider hit the 40 goal mark for the first time in his career. I mean, what can you really say about Kreider’s season at this point that hasn’t already been said? Just absolutely incredible stuff. An underrated part of this play was the assist Alexis Lafreniere gave him to get the shot off. Lafreniere entered the zone so confidently with great speed and gave a perfect pass to Kreider. He is without a doubt finding his footing here in New York and is gaining confidence at the perfect time.
The third would be much of the same and for the majority of it, you thought this game was destined for overtime. However, the refs weren’t doing the Rangers any favors and the lone penalty of the period would be a high sticking call yet Alexis Lafreniere’s stick didn’t even make contact with the player. The Rangers would kill it off with no issues but a missed call in the final minutes of the game would result in the dealbreaker. Ryan Lindgren took a glove to the face which shocker, resulting in him bleeding. Despite being without a stick for part of the shift and blood dripping from his face, he stayed out defending the Islanders who were applying pressure. A weird bounce ended up deflecting off Kyle Palmieri’s stick and snuck through Igor Shesterkin, 2-1 Isles.
A frustrated Ryan Lindgren skated right up to the official to show off his battle wound but it wouldn’t change anything. The Rangers pulled Shesterkin and tried to get back into it but they weren’t able to beat Sorokin who was close to flawless all throughout the evening. Despite a good all around game, the Rangers fall short and will take a tough loss with them to Tampa which will hopefully motivate them against two tough opponents.
For what it’s worth, the Rangers have a lot to like about this game. Frank Vatrano did a damn good job of jumping right into action on that line with Strome and Panarin and for a couple moments, looked real close to capitalizing on the play. Filip Chytil is playing some of his strongest hockey on the season and is hopefully on the brink of breaking out. Despite moving down a line, Johnny Brodzinski continues to impress and even fit in with Reaves and Goodrow on that fourth line, making a case for himself to stick around as long as he can.
The Rangers will head South for a back to back with two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. It will be interesting to see how Gerard Gallant handles the goaltending situation as Alexandar Georgiev will likely play one of the games. Igor Shesterkin has yet to play Carolina this season so you have to think it’s in the team's best interest to begin getting him familiar with the Canes in the event that the Rangers come across them in the playoffs. Nevertheless, this weekend will be a big test for the team and hopefully that loss to the Islanders will sting enough to make them hungry for wins.
Chris Feldman
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