Despite a shaky performance from Alexandar Georgiev, the Rangers came out on top with yet another comeback win to beat Detroit 5-4. It shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise that this one was a bit on the high scoring side as the Red Wings have the worst goals against average in the league. Special teams were a significant part of this one and Georgiev admittingly having a bad night helped the Red Wings keep this one close.
The Rangers would strike first in this one, just three and a half minutes in when Ryan Reaves snuck a shot past Alex Nedeljkovic, a goal I called before the game even started. (Per Twitter.) The lead would only hold for about six minutes as Michael Rasmussen slipped a shot through the legs of Alexandar Georgiev. Now let’s go ahead and get this one out of the way early. The narrative of blaming the goalie for losses to me is always a lazy and weak argument, especially being a former goalie. So many other things have to go wrong before the puck gets past the goaltender. However, had the Rangers lost this game, you’d be hard pressed to find somewhere to point the blame other than in the crease.
Georgiev even said in post game that he didn’t play well and the team bailed him out all night long, which was certainly true. That Rasmussen goal never should’ve gone in as it hit Georgiev’s stick before sneaking through his legs. Then towards the end of the first, Andrew Copp tripped up Lucas Raymond giving the Red Wings a power play. Jakub Vrana found the puck on the right wing wall and took his time to let the shot go. Not sure what Georgiev was thinking on this one but he only got one leg down, almost as if the shot was coming from the goal line and he was trying to hug the post. Except he wasn’t hugging the post and he should’ve gone down in a full butterfly as the puck once again sneaked right through his legs because of poor positioning.
Thankfully, the Rangers were quick to tie it up as Filip Chytil tipped in a Patrik Nemeth shot eleven seconds later. The tide would shift again as Greg McKegg got called for tripping in the final seconds of the period which sent the Red Wings power play unit back out there to start the second. 29 seconds in, it was Tyler Bertuzzi letting a slap shot go from the high slot that went right past Georgiev. Head Coach Gerard Gallant, the king of defending his players, was asked in post game if he considered pulling Georgiev and you have to think this would’ve been the time to consider it. You can’t even make that strong an argument that he was screened on the Bertuzzi goal because if you watch the replay, you see his head looking in the direction of where the puck ended up going.
Nevertheless, Georgiev remained in the game and luckily it wouldn’t cost the Rangers the game. A little over the halfway point of the period, Artemi Panarin, who again earlier in the game missed out on a scoring chance from holding the puck for too long, took the shot and knotted the game back up at three for his 18th of the season. End of two, the Blueshirts only had one shot over the Red Wings at 20-19 in a back and forth, close game.
To the third we go and it would be mostly New York taking the reins on this one, outshooting the Red Wings 13-5 in the final period. However six minutes in, Adam Erne put away a backhander off a redirected Marc Staal shot that Georgiev couldn’t get to, regaining the lead for Detroit. While the Rangers were outplaying the Red Wings, it was all of a sudden their game to lose. Dryden Hunt took a stick up high with about five minutes left, giving the Rangers one last man advantage. In what’s almost becoming an expectation, Chris Kreider scored on the power play to tie this one up, tying Jagr for most goals by a Ranger in a season to send this one to overtime.
Detroit maintained puck possession for the first minute of overtime and had a few good chances early but in the end, the Rangers had the final say. Artemi Panarin, on what would become his 62nd assist on the year, fed Andrew Copp a perfect pass making him the hometown hero, giving the Rangers the win. Can’t say enough just how great of a trade deadline Chris Drury had for the Rangers and the summertime conversation of what to do with these new acquisitions like Copp will certainly be interesting.
Nevertheless, the Rangers now have their fourth win in a row, eighth of their last ten and they head back home to prepare for a Friday Night rival matchup with the New York Islanders. This team continues to find ways to win and is becoming even stronger as the regular season winds down. The team has a big week of rivalry games where they will play every other day until next Sunday. Look for them to carry on the way they have all season as they now have only 14 games remaining before playoffs.
Chris Feldman
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