Last night’s meeting with the St. Louis Blues held the potential to make or break the season and while the win alone doesn’t automatically make it for the Rangers, they did avoid the break that would have caused from yet another disappointing loss. Despite consistently gaining and losing leads throughout the game, the Rangers stayed the course and had a huge third period that led them to a much needed victory that will hopefully snap this slump once and for all. As I mentioned, this win can only make things for this team IF they can build off it as they have a lot of work to get back to where they should be. While despite the win, it still wasn’t an all around great game, there were some important pieces that came together in this win that will hopefully spark the team moving forward.
The game got off to a relatively uneventful start, shots were 9-6 St. Louis in a first period with limited action and only one man advantage for each side. However, in the final three minutes of the period, the Rangers struck first, lost the lead and struck again to take a 2-1 lead into the game's first intermission. It was once again, the fourth line going to work for the Rangers as Sammy Blais took a hit but managed to maintain pressure that resulted in Julien Gauthier passing across the zone to Braden Schneider who let a shot go through a screen, once again provided by Blais. For what it’s worth, Braden Schneider is having himself a solid season offensively as he now has three goals (should’ve been four) in his last eight games.
Sure enough, a minute later Pavel Buchnevich had to remind Rangers fans of what they lost as he got on the board with his ninth of the season as his shot trickled through Shesterkin and was knocked over the line to even this one up. One minute after the goal, Jordan Kyrou of St. Louis got called for hooking which gave the Rangers a power play with just over thirty seconds left in the period. Not a ton of time to get anything generated but sure enough, Adam Fox found a way to make it happen as he let a shot go right at the start of the man advantage making Kyrou’s trip to the penalty box a short one. 2-1 Rangers.
The second period would pick up right where the first left off but without question would be the Rangers worst twenty of the night. Twelve seconds into the period, Vladimir Tarasenko let a shot go that beat Shesterkin to tie the game back up, this time at two goals a piece. Seems that no matter what, the Rangers just could not hold the lead for more than a minute. Thankfully, the Rangers were able to regain the lead once more as Vincent Trocheck got a piece of an Artemi Panarin shot that tipped right past Binnington to regain the Rangers lead, 3-2. Intensity picked up through the period as Tarasenko decided to go after Trouba during a stoppage that resulted in coincidentally roughing penalties, however a Ryan Lindgren hooking call made it a four on three. Kyrou capitalized on the power play for St. Louis and not even two minutes later, Ryan O’Reilly gave the Blues a 4-3 lead.
The third period was huge for the Rangers in more ways than one. The team could not lose this game or else who knows what would have went down and probably still can if they don’t build off this win. K’Andre Miller, who up to this point was without a goal on the season, finally found the back of the net to tie the game up at four. We talk about how badly the Rangers need the kids to succeed and we often forget that Miller is one of those kids given how relied on he was last season. Gallant, who didn’t make any changes to the lineup prior to the game aside from having Jonny Brodzinski fill in for Chytil, used the third period of this game to move Kakko and Lafreniere up to the first line with Zibanejad. With the team trailing going into the third, he had to do something and putting the kids on that top line was long overdue. Alexis Lafreniere would reward himself by tipping in a Zibanejad shot that gave the Rangers a 5-4 lead almost halfway through the period.
For as important as it was to get Miller on the score sheet again, Lafreniere definitely needed a goal as he only had three on the season before last night. Chris Kreider would have the final say in this one as he capitalized on a nice forehand to backhand move on the breakaway to make it a 6-4 total. The team killed off the final minutes and despite a final push from St. Louis with the extra attacker, the Rangers held the lead and are now able to head off on their road trip on a positive note. Not only was it important to get a win to bounce back from the losses but it was important to do so before heading out to play Vegas and Colorado, two highly skilled teams that will definitely leave the Rangers with their work cut out for them.
The Blueshirts will be on the west coast again for a two game road trip as they take on the Golden Knights tomorrow night and Colorado Friday. The Rangers have been known to play to their opponents in the past so hopefully the fact that they will be going up against top teams will be enough for them to step up their game and build off last night’s win. The line combinations will be something to keep an eye on in the coming days as Lafreniere and Kakko finally saw top six minutes towards the end of last night's game and will need to keep it going moving forward. Their importance of their success impacting the team’s success can not be overstated and you have to hope that Lafreniere’s game winning goal and Kakko continuing to find scoring chances will be enough for them to start being rewarded on the score sheet more frequently.
Chris Feldman
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