It's no secret the Rangers are struggling to generate offense, especially as of late, but once again, this team finds a way to win in a much needed opportunity. The Rangers, who have not lost more than two or three games in a row all that often this season, were on the brink of giving this one away, as they once again found themselves giving up a two goal lead in the final stretch of this hockey game. Thankfully, they saved themselves from an overtime and were able to walk out of the Garden with a win in an otherwise lackluster effort that head coach Gerard Gallant labeled as "awful."
Despite getting only six shots on goal, the Rangers left the first period leading the Kraken 1-0 thanks to a Mika Zibanejad rocket of a one timer that of course came on a Rangers power play. Seattle outshot the Rangers 14-6 in the first, gradually outplaying them more and more as the game went on. Just a couple minutes into the second and it was Mika Zibanejad again, this time getting the puck to the stick of Alexis Lafreniere, who had a wide open net to tap the puck into. Lafreniere, who is finally staying put on that top line, breaks a long scoring drought off that play which has to feel good for his confidence. This goal also gave Zac Jones his first assist of the season.
As I mentioned earlier, the more this game went on, the more Seattle controlled the play. The Rangers would once again only get six shots on goal throughout the period while the Kraken would find eleven. With about thirteen minutes to go in the second Jared McCann, who is having a career year with the Kraken, snuck a shot through Shesterkin to break the goose egg and cut the Rangers lead in half. One bright spot for the Rangers was that they were pretty solid on face-off's throughout the net, ending the game with a 56.1 win percentage. Which is pretty impressive given the fact the official in this game seemed to refuse to drop the puck, continuously kicking center-men out for jumping the gun.
To the third we go and this would pretty much be all Seattle despite the fact that the Rangers would double their shot tally, getting twelve pucks to the net in the final period. To their dismay, the Kraken would also get their most shots on goal in a period in the third with 17. It almost seemed as if the Rangers were in the clear as Shesterkin was keeping them in it however, Mika Zibanejad got called for a late tripping goal and Yanne Gourde took advantage, scoring a beautiful one timer that Shesterkin didn't stand a chance on. All of a sudden with 68 seconds left in the game, they're tied at two.
Thankfully for the Rangers, K'Andre Miller got the puck at the slot off a Zibanejad face-off win and while he assessed his options, let a sneaky snap shot go that beat Phillip Grubauer to give the Rangers the lead again. Miller had a chance at a breakaway earlier in the period so it had to feel good to be able to redeem himself by scoring the game winning goal. The Rangers killed off the final 34 seconds and they were on their feet at the Garden, not a clean win or frankly that good of a win but a necessary win at that.
The Rangers are back at it on Tuesday to take on the Florida Panthers for Black History Night at the Garden. This will be the Rangers last game before heading into the all-star break and for a team who is certainly ready for it, you have to hope they will be able to throw together one last strong effort and take a win into that two week break. The Rangers will need to break the habit of not getting enough shots on goal if they want to be successful in this one as the Florida Panthers are a team that will take advantage of every opportunity to shoot the puck and they tend to score a lot of goals in the process.
Chris Feldman
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