An explosive first period from the Rangers second line leads the Blueshirts to their fourth win in a row, seventh in their last eight games. This team continues to impress as they close out the season and head into playoffs, last night being no exception. Despite being eliminated from the postseason, dealing with injuries and yet again COVID issues, the Islanders kept their foot on the gas the entire night and the Rangers continued to stay on top of them.
The Rangers wasted no time getting after it, getting themselves on the scoreboard just under four minutes into the game. Artemi Panarin fed a beautiful backhand pass to Andrew Copp who let a shot go that Varlamov didn't stand a chance on. Just three minutes later, Panarin gave us all deja vu with another perfect feed to Copp who once against beat Varlamov for his second, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead. Then with under two minutes to go in the period, it was Ryan Strome on the primary assist, Panarin with the secondary, finding Andrew Copp again to complete the natural hat-trick, giving the team a 3-0 lead to take into the second.
What an absolute period it was for that line of Copp, Panarin and Strome. Artemi Panarin is exploding at a great time, playing some of his best hockey of the season which is saying a lot about someone who's pushing 100 points on the season. To the second we go and the Rangers shutout streak would come to an end as Brock Nelson found a way to beat Alexandar Georgiev who was pretty stellar throughout the first period, stopping all eight shots. The intensity of this battle was picking up as the period went on as the Rangers would find themselves on the power play with about three minutes to go.
On the Rangers lone power play opportunity of the evening it was Chris Kreider finding the back of the net for his 51st of the year, just three goals away from tying Jagr with four games remaining. Jacob. Trouba and Oliver Wahlstrom would go off for coincidental roughing minors and with under a minute to go in the period, Ryan Strome found the back of the net off yet another Artemi Panarin assist to make it 5-1 for his 20th of the season. First time in his career hitting the 20 goal mark.
The Islanders would get their crack at the power play off a Ryan Strome hooking penalty a minute 45 into the third. Brock Nelson would find his second of the night on the man advantage, beating Georgiev through the five hole. A little after the midway mark the Rangers third line, caught in a change, found themselves on a three on one. Barclay Goodrow fed Alexis Lafreniere who gave a perfect back door pass to Ryan Reaves who put it away for his fourth of the season to make it a 6-2 game.
Shortly after Reaves' goal, Josh Bailey found his twelfth of the season, beating a sliding Georgiev to make it 6-3. The Islanders continued to push and would end up outshooting the Rangers 29-23 but it wouldn't be enough. The Rangers held their ground, winning in decisive fashion as they continue to push for that first place spot in the Metro. Of course the Hurricanes ended up beating the Jets last night so the two remain tied for the spot, meaning it may come down to that final meeting between them next week.
Unfortunately, the Rangers would have a price to pay for the Islanders push. As the game came to an end, both Andrew Copp and Filip Chytil were missing from the Rangers bench. Gallant said postgame that Chytil was a little sore from a cross check and Copp didn't have an injury. However, this was before talking to the trainers as it turned out Copp indeed has a lower body injury. Last night's win may not have secured the Rangers first place but it did secure home ice advantage in the playoffs for the Rangers. With that, on top of the Copp and Chytil issues should be reason enough for the Rangers to move first place down the priority list.
With four games left, Gallant should really consider giving some of his guys a rest. At this point, it really shouldn't matter if the Rangers finish in first or second, keeping everyone healthy should be the priority. Gauthier, Brodzinski, McKegg haven't played in quite some time, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to give them some action before the postseason begins. Gallant may have no choice but to get them in if Chytil and Copp have to miss a game or two but if there's any doubt, there shouldn't be any pressure to keep them in the mix.
Aside from that, it was all positives for the Rangers on Long Island last night. It was the Rangers 25th win on the road this season which ties them for third most in team history. Copp had quite the night for the stats, collecting his 200th point of his career while having points in 13 of his 15 games as a Ranger with at least three points in his last two games. He is third player in Rangers history to record a first period hat-trick joining Kelly Kisio and Don Raleigh in that category. Chris Kreider became the first player since Ilya Kovalchuk in 2006 to score more than 51 goals and 26 power play goals in a season.
Kreider along with Mika Zibanejad also became the duo tied with the most combined power play goals since Jaromir Jagr and Petr Prucha in 2005-06 with 40. Lastly, with his four point night, Artemi Panarin is just four points away from hitting the 100 point mark for the first time in his career. All of these stats certainly combine for one of the most exciting finishes to a regular season in quite some time. The Rangers are back at it in Boston for an afternoon original six showdown on Saturday as they look to continue their great play and finish the season strong.
Chris Feldman
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