New York Rangers: A good 5-1 win over the Red Wings

The New York Rangers bounced back from their embarrassing loss to Ottawa and defeated a bad Detroit team at Madison Square Garden.

With question marks swirling around them and a slightly revamped lineup, the New York Rangers came through and handed the Red Wings their 12th loss is their last 13 games.  It was a good win for the Blueshirts, but it wasn’t a great win.  After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the second period, the Wings had the Rangers on their heels for extended periods.

The Rangers scored three straight goals in the second period, including two on the power play when Detroit scored to make it a 3-1 game. The goal revitalized the the Red Wings and they dominated play for the last ten minutes of the period.  Their strong play continued into the third period and it looked like the Rangers were in trouble when they had to kill a bad tripping penalty by Micheal Haley.  Greg McKegg was able to get into the Detroit zone and score on his own rebound for a shorthanded goal and a 4-1 lead.

Coach David Quinn put it perfectly saying “I thought we made things complicated for ourselves with that goal they scored to  made it 3-1….didn’t love the end of our second period.  But thought we were much better in the third, played a smarter game.  Didn’t take unnecessary chances….breaking up the odd man rushes…obviously, we got  the shorthanded goal. All of a sudden its 3-2 if they capitalize on their power play…we get the shorthanded goal and that put us in a really good position.”

The Wings pulled their goalie with over five minutes left and the Rangers salted away the win on an empty net goal by Artemi Panarin.

Henrik Lundqvist got his first start in four games and had an excellent outing.  McKegg played instead of Lias Andersson (who we may not see for a while) and Marc Staal replaced Ryan Lindgren.

The game

The first period was exactly what it was supposed to be, a game between two of the NHL’s underachievers.  There was no scoring with the Rangers holding the slight edge in play.  They outshot the Wings 11-7 and had a couple of sterling chances.  Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard grew up in Syracuse as a Ranger fan and always plays well against New York with a 10-3-3 career record. It looked like he was up to his old tricks.

The Blueshirts looked much better in the second period and it was the second power play unit that got them going.  At the 4:25 mark, with one second left in the man advantage, Brendan Lemieux made a strong move to the net and Anthony DeAngelo got to the rebound and had an open net.

Less than two minutes later, Chris Kreider snapped a shot over Howard’s shoulder, a goal the netminder would definitely want to take back.  Kreider took a pass from Buchnevich for the score and DeAngelo got the secondary assist for his second point of the night.

Brendan Lemieux did his best Brady Tkachuk imitation and drew a roughing penalty on Jonathan Abdelkader.   The Blueshirts made Detroit pay on a shot from the blue line by Adam Fox that was headed wide but deflected off Ryan Strome’s shoulder into the net.

53 seconds later, the Rangers let the Red Wings right back into the game as Andreas Athanasiou and Valtteri Filppula had a break that turned into a two on none when Jacob Trouba was caught awkwardly turning at the blue line.  Filppula put the puck past an outstretched Lundqvist for their only goal of the night.

From that point it was fasten your seatbelts time for the Blueshirts as the Wings dominated play. They outshot the Rangers 8-5 the rest of the period and eight of 11 faceoffs as they maintained possession.

The third period started with that precarious 3-1 lead and it looked like trouble when Haley tripped up Tyler Bertuzzi.  The Wings had a strong power play, but Brett Howden won a puck battle in the corner, got the puck to Greg McKegg who took off and had a rush.  McKegg’s shot hit Howard’s stick and he had no idea where the rebound came down. Tyler Bertuzzi tried to get the puck with his glove and missed and McKegg buried the rebound for his first Ranger goal, shorthanded

The three goal lead seemed unsurmountable, but the Red Wings pulled Howard with over five minutes left in the game. The Wings were able to keep the offense going for almost 2:30 when Artemi Panarin score the empty netter to put the game away.

It certainly felt closer than the final score.  The Red Wings outshot the Rangers 36-31 and it was Henrik Lundqvist who kept the Rangers in the game over the last 30 minutes.  The good news is this as  game the Rangers should have won and they did, though not as decisively as they would have liked.

Notes on the game

The Red Wings dominated the Rangers in a number of areas.  They had more shots (36-31), outhit the Rangers (23-14), had fewer giveaways (9-18) and won 35 of 60 faceoffs (58%).

The Rangers won the game because of special teams, scoring two power play goals in three attempts and adding the shorthanded backbreaker.  They took two penalties and allowed five shots shorthanded.

Kaapo Kakko played 19:32, second most among forwards and behind only Chris Kreider with 19:50 and believe it or not, almost three minutes more than Panarin.  While Kakko had only one shot on goal, he played a very solid two way game.

McKegg took advantage of his start to play an active game.  His shorthanded goal was opportunistic and by scoring, he will present David Quinn with an interesting question about getting Lias Andersson back into the lineup.

The Rangers had a bizarre night on faceoffs.  They totally dominated in the first period, winning 13 of 18 (72%), but were able to win only 12 of the final 42, a 28% success rate. No doubt that contributed to the Red Wings ability to maintain possession for most of the game.  Brett Howden had a bad night, winning only 28% of his 13 draws.

Marc Staal was back in the lineup and played 18:19 quiet minutes.  He did nothing to keep him out of the lineup against Carolina. After the game, David Quinn said “he had a solid night.”

Dylan Larkin played a game high 24:49 and his line (Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha) combined for 12 shots and were a combined minus five while being held scoreless.

After winning only four of 14 games on national television last season, the Rangers are 2-2 this season and have won two in a row.

Henrik Lundqvist evened his season record at 3-3.  His goals against average dropped to 3.00 and his save percentage is now .916 on the season.  There’s a chance he could get the start Thursday in Carolina.  He spoke to reporters after the game.

Quinn was asked about Lundqvist’s lighter schedule.  Quinn said “He understands why we’re doing it.  It certainly isn’t punishment.  It’s load management, game management…whatever you want to call it… for someone his age, the way the position has kind of changed a little bit.  Most teams are going with a two goalie situation where one guy might play 60 percent and the other guy 40 …that will be the case for us…He’s a a smart guy and understands changes and adapting as you move further in your career..”

Adam Fox recovered from a rough game on Monday night with an assist as he led all defensemen in minutes played with 19:56.

Filip Chytil didn’t get on the scoresheet, but his line was the best for the Rangers with a Corsi for percentage of 63.6% at even strength, outshooting the opposition 10-4.

The Rangers moved into third place in the NHL with three shorthanded goals.  Vegas leads with five.    The empty net goal was the third for the Blueshirts this season.

On a positive note, they’ve now won four of their last six games and moved ahead of the Devils and Blue Jackets in the Met Division standings.