Chris Kreider and the New York Rangers are officially hot once again, as his two goal night extends the teams winning streak to three. Despite more than enough power play opportunities for the Winnipeg Jets, the Blueshirts were able to limit their conversions to one as Igor Shesterkin once again proved why he is one of the best goalies in the league. Another night where the Rangers didn’t necessarily look the best, being outshot 46-22 however, they did take advantage of the opportunities given to them and with Shesterkin’s brilliance, that’s enough to win the game.
The Blueshirts got off to a quick start when Barclay Goodrow put one away off a Jacob Trouba shot just 121 seconds into the game. While Goodrow scored the goal and assists were credited to Trouba and Filip Chytil, Jonny Brodzinski was a huge part of this goal. Goodrow entered the zone looking to feed Brodzinski, who did a great job of dragging his leg to ensure the play stayed onside. This was the first of several shifts where Brodzinski looked really good out there and if Gerard Gallant wants to shake things up, he should consider giving him a look on the wing with Strome and Panarin.
The Rangers would begin to find themselves in the land of penalty trouble as Ryan Lindgren would go off for Tripping Blake Wheeler at 3:59 and Filip Chytil got called on a questionable holding call at 11:58. The Rangers would kill both of them off and as things began to settle, the Jets would begin to take their share of penalties. Back to back calls led to the Rangers power play units going to work in the period's final four minutes. While the first power play couldn’t get anything done, Chris Kreider did what he does best on the second one, creating traffic in front and putting one away on the power play for his 37th of the season. The Rangers would take a 2-0 lead to the second but would stay shorthanded as a result of a Trouba tripping call.
Despite Barclay Goodrow stressing the importance of staying out of the box in his intermission interview, the Rangers continued to take penalties and it certainly backfired. Nikolaj Ehlers would break the goose egg, releasing Alexis Lafreniere from the penalty box early. The rest of the period was rather lackluster as the Rangers only put seven pucks on net while the Jets had 13. Jonny Brodzinski would get called for high sticking with about three minutes to go and once again, the Rangers penalty killers had to go to work.
The Rangers stayed out of the box for the most part in the third and found the goal scoring touch once again when Chris Kreider came in hot on a partial breakaway, slipping a backhander past Connor Hellebuyck, 3-1. Just three minutes later, Jacob Trouba let a slap shot go from the point that took a redirect to the back of the net to extend the lead against his former team to 4-1. While things began to settle down again, the Rangers wouldn’t be done with the penalties as Patrik Nemeth tripped a man up with exactly one minute to go. The Jets called a timeout, pulled their goalie and attempted to get back in the game but Shesterkin and the Rangers held them off. Shesterkin also found himself going for the empty net once again but ran out of time as he sent the puck down the ice.
The buzzer sounds and the Rangers win, their third in a row as they kick off the road trip in solid fashion. Penalties will without question be something the Rangers look to fix moving forward but otherwise, the team played relatively well and continue to win hockey games. From Winnipeg the team will head to Minnesota to take on the Wild as they look to have a better showing to even up the season series.
Chris Feldman
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