Although it wasn’t the best game of hockey to watch, the New York Rangers got the job done after blowing out the New Jersey Devils in a 4-0 shutout win on Saturday.
In a game that was plagued by penalties, the New York Rangers stretched their point streak to five consecutive games (4-0-1) and bolstered their playoff hopes in the process.
And the Blueshirts had their special teams to thank for coming out on top against a woeful Devils team, with both the power play and the penalty kill producing the goods.
Adam Fox got things started in the first period when he took full advantage of a sublime pass from Kaapo Kakko to convert on the power play.
That was the only goal of the game for a while as the second period was disrupted time and time again by a slew of penalties, with the Rangers spending more than 15 minutes shorthanded, which is just incredible.
But, despite having to rely on their penalty killers, the Blueshirts asserted their dominance over the Devils in an impressive third period.
It started with Sami Vatanen gifting the puck to Mika Zibanejad who fed the puck to Brendan Lemieux before getting it back and one-timing it past Mackenzie Blackwood.
Zibanejad had a major role to play in the Rangers’ third goal after Jacob Trouba led an odd-man rush before giving the puck to the forward, who then in turn fed a dish to Jesper Fast who finished off the move with a deadly one-timer.
Brady Skjei, who has been playing at a high level as of late, iced the game with an empty-netter and it was a big win for the New York Rangers who bounced back from a tough loss in Boston the night before.
Let’s go over some takeaways from the game…