The Rangers bounce back and pounce on the Penguins, with an 8-4 win. All eight goals coming from eight different players. The Rangers didn't necessarily control or dominate this game, Pittsburgh out shot them 45-25, was stronger on face-offs, and controlled a lot of the play. The Rangers did however get on the board early, put up plenty of goals including on all three power plays and Igor Sheshterkin played a strong game. This is their recipe for success going into the final push of the season.
Lets take it from the top, lots of Rangers fans voiced their opinions on Colin Blackwell being placed back on that second line, myself included. Blackwell decided to shut us all up by being the first to get his name on the goal scorers column. Six minutes later, Mika Zibanejad put a back hander in past Jarry to make it 2-0. The Rangers would head to the power play as we approach the halfway mark of the first period. Artemi Panarin would patiently wait for his shot before letting an absolute laser go to make it 3-0. Speaking of 3-0, Adam Fox would record his 30th assist of the season on this goal, he now sits as the league leading defenseman in assists.
Less than a minute later, Jared McCann who has been very good as of late for the Penguins, got them on the board for his tenth of the season. With 18 seconds to go in the first, Ryan Strome would score on the power play with assists from, you guessed it, Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox, who combined now have 59 assists, This would put an end to Tristan Jarry's night as Casey DeSmith would replace him to start the second period.
12:20 into the second the "kid line" would strike as Alexis Lafreniere would wrap the puck around and bounce it off a Penguins defenders skate to make it 5-1. The Penguins D-Squad would get it back as Mike Matheson would strike 16 seconds later. The Rangers power play would strike again in the third as Kaapo Kakko would tip one in making it 6-2. The general theme of this game would be the Penguins scoring within a minute or so of us scoring a goal. Jake Guentzel would strike after Kakko's goal making it 6-3.
With about ten to go in the game, Adam Norris, excuse me, Fox joined the scoring party for his fifth of the season, which may not sound like much until you remember his 31 assists. Buchnevich would score right after that for his 15th of the year making it 8-3. Brian Dumoulin would get the last one of the night, his first of the season in the last minute and a half of the game. The buzzer would sound and the Blueshirts would walk out with a big 8-4 win, the same score that the Mets would win by in the same night.
Igor Sheshterkin stood tall, as he has since getting back in the saddle of being the teams number one goalie. It will be interesting to see if they ride him in the upcoming back to back stretch of games or if they will look to get Georgiev in there for one of them. Another refreshing part of last nights game was the fact that Quinn gave Kravtsov some shifts with Strome and Panarin. I think once this kid gets going, this is the line he's going to find himself on. Quinn let the kids play and it paid off, Lafreniere finding a goal and Kakko a goal and assist. The Rangers are back at it with Pittsburgh on Thursday and will look to carry the momentum of this win into the start of a back to back.
Chris Feldman
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