3 straight wins to finish the Traverse City tournament

The New York Rangers finished their NHL Prospect Tournament by beating the St. Louis Blues 5-3 as they finished in fifth place overall.

The New York Rangers ended a successful trip to Traverse City, Michigan with a solid 5-3 win over the St. Louis Blues prospects.  The Rangers came into the game with a 2-1 record, tied for the best in the Ted Lindsay Division.  Because of head to head results and regulation versus overtime wins, the Rangers were relegated to playing for fifth place overall.

St. Louis was in the Gordie Howe Division and came into the game with a 1-2  record having been outscored 15 to nine in those three games.

The Blueshirts rested the best of their prospects as Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov and Adam Fox did not play.  Also scratched were Lewis Zerter-Goassage and Yegor Rykov who both sustained injuries in the previous game against Minnesota.

Since this was a prospect tournament, it was the last opportunity for a number of non-roster players to make an impression before the Rangers brain trust and Hartford coach Kris Knoblauch. Those players include forwards Brett Kemp, MacAuley Carson, Keith Getson, Josh Maser, Cody Milan and defenseman Kade Landry.

As a result, it would be accurate to describe the game as an offensive show with little regard for defense.  Actually, river hockey would be a better description as the game featured numerous rushes into the offensive zone and several odd man breaks.

It wasn’t scintillating hockey, but it was entertaining.  The question is whether the non-drafted and non-roster players made enough of an impression to warrant a minor league contract. For the players drafted by the Rangers, it is time for them to return to their junior teams to continue their development.

The game

The baby Rangers totally dominated the first period, although they were outshot 12-11.  With Adam Huska in goal, the Rangers got on the scoreboard first, about five minutes into the game when Ryan Dmowski scored on a nice feed from Joey Keane who had carried the puck into the Blues zone.

At the 11:18 mark, Anthony Salinitri scored on a two-on-one break with Nick Jones with the secondary assist going to Tarmo Reunanen.   About a minute later, Karl Henriksson sent a pass from behind the net to Jake Elmer who put it home.

Each team had one power play, but did not score and the period ended with the Blueshirts up 3-0.

The Rangers dominance continued into the second period.  Nick  Jones scored a power play goal after Blues defenseman Mitch Reinke had been called for a slashing penalty at 4:30 mark.  Jones took a nice pass from defenseman Tarmo Reunanen and scored. Henriksson added another assist on the goal.

Six minutes into the period, the Rangers had to kill back-to-back penalties to MacAuley Carson and Keith Getson.  They did so with ease, getting two shorthanded two-on-one breaks in the process.  Brett Kemp and Shawn McBride both missed on set-ups by Patrick Newell.

With under three minutes left in the second period, the Blues got on the scoreboard when they won a faceoff in the Rangers zone and  Alexey Toropchenko broke to the net and put the shot past Huska.  They added another with only seven seconds left in the period  on a fluky deflection by St. Louis 2017 first rounder Klim Kostin.   The period ended with the Blueshirts up 4-2.

For most of the period the teams played a tighter defense and the session ended with the Blues outshooting the Rangers 11-7 for a game total of 23-18.

Buoyed by the two late goals, the Blues came out firing in the third period, hemming the Rangers in their zone.  Huska had to make a series of tough, point blank saves.  After five minutes of sustained pressure, Mattias Laferriere was able to walk in for an unassisted goal and the Blues  were within one.

Keenan Washkurak of the Blues was called for a penalty but seconds later it was negated by a Ranger hooking penalty.  Skating four on four, Patrick Newell got free and scored at 10:57 to restore the two goal lead.  He took a nice pass from Hunter Skinner and Henriksson notched the secondary assist, his third of the game.

The Blues continued to pour it on, but were unable to dent the twines.  They even pulled their goalie with 2:37 left in the game, but Huska stood on his head and the Blueshirts withstood the barrage.  St. Louis was called for an offensive zone penalty and the Rangers finished the game on the power play.

The Blues outshot the Rangers in the third period 12-4 and finished with 35 shots to New York’s 22,  but the Rangers prevailed 5-3.

The Rangers finished the tournament in fifth place overall with a 3-1 record, scoring 18 goals while allowing 16.