Despite falling behind by two goals in the first period against the Panthers on Saturday, the Rangers rallied with four straight goals to come out on top by the score of 4-3. It was another borderline abysmal period where the Rangers were out-shot 12-3 and paid the price by falling behind early, but the team quickly found their game and they have their youngest players to thank for that. The win brings the Rangers within four points of the Devils and seven of Carolina. With the same amount of games in hand as New Jersey, the Rangers have a fairly good chance of playing for home ice advantage in the playoffs down the coming stretch.
Alas, before we look at the road ahead, let’s recap the big win from Saturday Evening. As mentioned earlier, it was not a good start for the Rangers as Florida had total control of play from the start and after nine minutes, were rewarded with their first goal of the night as Aleksander Barkov put one past Jaro Halak to give his team an early lead. Wouldn’t be long after that before Florida made it two as Ryan Lomberg snuck a shot in to make it 2-0 with just over five minutes left in the period. Both before and after Florida’s pair of goals, the Rangers had power play chances that they, once again, were unable to convert on. One of the main focuses, if not the sole one moving forward through this final stretch, needs to be the power play as special teams become crucial in the postseason. As of right now, these units ain’t it.
The Blueshirts woke up in the second as Kaapo Kakko went hard to the net and put away a rebound for his fourteenth on the season. Filip Chytil, who had the primary assist on the play made a nice move to get around the defender and put the puck on net to begin with as it was their line that really changed the pace of the game. Later on in the period, Jacob Trouba fed Alexis Lafreniere with a nice pass that led Lafreniere to pull off a beautiful move to get around the defender and slip a backhander right past Bobrovsky. With only about a minute and a half left in the period, it was a whole new game as the Rangers made it a tied game to head into the third.
The Rangers wasted no time obtaining the lead as Patrick Kane found his 20th of the year, 450th all-time on a super weird redirect. After Brandon Montour broke up a play on the half wall, Kane just threw the puck to the net which ramped up off a Panthers stick and into the back of the net. They don’t ask how, they ask how many right? About five minutes later, Filip Chytil completed the “Kid Line Trifecta” as Kakko chipped up the puck that bounced past Aaron Ekblad, allowing Chytil to go in all alone and put a shot past Bobrovsky to make it 4-2. An incredible showing from that line of young stars which is what you love to see, especially when your top players aren’t performing how they usually do.
Barkov found his second of the night to ruin one of my bets on the night and bring the Cats within one but nevertheless, the Rangers held onto their lead and won the game 4-3 in the end. An incredible 40 minute effort which became enough to take this win from the team who probably needed those points a little more desperately. Another solid win for Jaro Halak who checked in a little more noticeably after those first two goals and made 34 saves on the night. The Rangers now have nine games left on the season and are in the midst of a two day stretch of no games before they return to the Garden to host the Blue Jackets for one of two more meetings on the season.
It’ll be one more busy week for the Blueshirts as the calm before the storm starts to dwindle down. If they’re able to beat the Jackets on Tuesday, their next game will be against the Devils which will undoubtedly be a huge game. If the Devils lose tonight and the Rangers win tomorrow, the Rangers will be in a great position to leapfrog into second and push for home ice advantage. The more important thing in these final two weeks however will be staying healthy and making sure no one is getting overworked. Regardless of seeding, the Rangers have the luxury of traveling real well, having any opposing arena feel like home and with the likelihood of the Devils being their first round opponent, fans will have “the rock” sounding like the Garden.
Chris Feldman
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