New York Rangers at Minnesota Wild: After The Horn

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Final Score:

New York Rangers 1 Minnesota Wild 2

First Period:

The game opened with both teams moving well. Mid way throughout the fourth minute of the Period Brian Boyle did a great job picking up a loose puck and driving the net. His diving shot on goal enabled him to draw the first penalty of the game for a Rangers power play. Ryan Suter went to the box for slashing but the Rangers were not able to convert on the power play. It took the Wild awhile to challenge Cam Talbot but when they finally did, he made a brilliant save! Matt Cooke did his best to get the Rangers to engage him for a penalty, even Mats Zuccarello let Cooke know what he thought. Derek Stepan got the first penalty against the Rangers for hooking against Marco Scandella at the 10:39 mark. Nino Niederreiter picked up a puck from John Moore to Rick Nash, who couldn’t control, and beat Talbot for the first goal of the game at the 13:08 mark. With just over four and a half minutes remaining in the period Carl Hagelin went flying down the ice but ran out of room to get the best shot on goal. Then Benoit Pouliot was shown to the box for hooking Matt Cooke. With 39 seconds remaining on the penalty kill, Dominic Moore took a stick to the face off a follow through on a shot so it wasn’t a penalty but he did get his lip zipped up. The kill was successful for the Rangers as they continued to look for their first goal. It took the Wild nearly nine minutes to get more than one shot on goal but they ended the period out shooting the Rangers 9-7.

Second Period:

As the period started up both teams came out sharp. Chris Kreider too a stick to the side of his face and gave the Rangers their second power play of the night as Kyle Brodziak sat in the box for two minutes. Stepan rang the post but couldn’t seem to get the goal to even things up. Then he patiently waited to get the puck back and beat Darcy Kuemper on the short side to even the game at one. The game really turned into a battle after that. Both teams started moving quickly. Passes were broken up both ways, pucks were stripped off sticks, and the Rangers had a lot of time in the offensive zone. Hagelin used his speed to save the Rangers from icing and to keep constant pressure on the puck while he was on the ice. D Moore took another stick to the face in the period, this time it was a goalie paddle. Ryan McDonagh rang the post with just over five minutes remaining then Hagelin went to the box for tripping behind the net while fighting for the puck against the boards. No harm on the foul, the Rangers killed the penalty off with strength. The teams continued to battle and the period closed tied at one with the Wild again out shooting the Rangers 9-7.

Third Period:

The period opened up with the Wild on a mission and they got the go ahead goal just over a minute into the period as Zach Parise beat Talbot in a scramble. The pace of the game remained fast. Derick Brassard had a great chance from the slot but was denied. The referees put the whistles away and let the teams go at it. Marc Staal went down hard in a knee on knee collision with Charlie Coyle against the boards by the bench. There was no penalty called for some strange reason, even thought there was a referee right there. Brad Richards rang the post with about five and a half minutes remaining in the game. With 3:20 remaining the Rangers received their third power play of the game thanks to a delay of game call on Brodziak. The conversion didn’t happen and Cam Talbot made his way to the bench for the extra attacker  with 1:37 remaining. There was a close call as the puck cleared the zone but went wide of the empty net with 1:03 remaining for the icing call. Ryan Suter played for over a minute with no stick and with .4 seconds remaining Kuemper got the whistle as there was a scramble in front of the net and he came up with the puck. The Rangers were unable to get the equalizer despite out shooting the Wild 16-8 in the period and 30-26 for the game.

TEAM STATS

The Rangers play again tomorrow against the Winnipeg Jets with another 8:00pm ET start.