After four goals in the third period and a 5-2 win over Montreal, words cannot describe this team

The improbable streak continues.  The New York Rangers came back from a 2-1 deficit and scored four goals in the last nine minutes of the game to beat Montreal and move two points out of a playoff spot.

Montreal is becoming a city for comebacks for the New York Rangers. When trailing after two period, they’ve comeback to win three times this season and they’ve done it twice against the Canadiens, both times at the Bell Centre.  Four unanswered goals in the third period led to a 5-2 win and they are now only two points behind Columbus for the last wide card spot and have two games in hand.

All of the usual ingredients came through as Mika Zibanejad scored in his sixth straight game, but it was Phil DiGiuseppe who scored the most important goal.  Adam Fox had a spectacular game, recovering from a puck off his skate into his own net.  Ryan Lindgren had  his second straight two assist game, Ryan Strome contributed with two goals and Julien Gauthier got his first point as a Ranger, assisting on the game-tying goal.

The Rangers have now won nine road games in a row, not just the longest streak in the NHL season, but the longest streak in the NHL in two years.   If they can beat Philadelphia Friday night, they will do something accomplished by only seven teams in modern league history.

Just as impressive is their overall record of nine wins in their last ten including a four game winning streak and their current five game winning streak.  This after the team was unable to string together three wins in a row in seven tries earlier this season (they did it once in November).

After two periods of underwhelming hockey the entire team turned it on in the third period and once they tied the game they were relentless.  They couldn’t have done it without spectacular work by Alexandar Georgiev  who withstood a  barrage of shots in the first two period.

Something really special is building with this New York Rangers team.  While they amazing comeback in November was something special, the Rangers are making  this kind of effort almost commonplace. It’s just a matter of who will be the hero of the night.

Now, the Rangers head into a home and home with the Philadelphia Flyers who are riding their own four game winning streak and are 13-3-1 in their last 17 games.  How important are these games?  If the Blueshirts win both they will be one point behind the Flyers and will begin thinking about finishing  among the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division.

It’s hard to believe.

The game

The first period was a tightly played, conservative period. The Rangers were gifted a power play just 13 seconds into the game when Jeff Petry put the puck into the stands, but it was too early.  The Blueshirts were skating in mud the first five minutes of the game and wasted the man advantage.

Both teams had decent scoring opportunities, but it was Montreal that scored a goal that deflected off Adam Fox’s skate.  Max Domi took the shot that was going wide, but hit Fox’s skate and bounced into the Rangers’ net. it was a lucky goal, though the Habs definitely had the better of the play.

Georgiev was at his best, stopping a wide open Paul Byron.

The Canadiens ended up outshooting the Rangers 13-9 and had more shot attempts 22-12, helped by the two penalties taken by the Rangers.

The second period was similar to the first period with both teams exchanging chances.  Georgiev made on of the best saves of the year after giving the puck away , stopping a point blank shot by Phillip Danault.

Not only that, but the old bugaboo reared it’s ugly head when the Rangers were called for a two many men on the ice penalty. less than a minute later.   They killed that penalty but just three minutes later Tomas Tatar broke in on a two on one and made a spectacular move to beat Georgiev. It’s worth looking at this goal, it was a beauty.

Less than a minute later, Georgiev stoned Dale Wiese on a breakaway and right after the Rangers finally broke through and it was depth scoring that came through.

The play was made by an Adam Fox rush, but Phil Di Giuseppe scored his first goal since November 2018 by crashing the net and beating two Canadien players  to score.

That was an incredibly important goal coming just a minute and a half after Tatar’s breakaway and with less than two minutes left in the period.  Going into the third period down a goal instead of two was huge.

The third period, the Rangers were a different team with 13 shot attempts in the first 11 minutes, helped by a tripping penalty to Brendan Gallagher.  Carey Price stood tall and with just under nine minutes left in the game, the Rangers were able to tie the score on a goal by, who else, Mika Zibanejad.

It was a make-shift line with Julien Gauthier playing with Zibanejad and Panarin and he got his first assist as a Rangers with a drop pass to Panarin who fed Zibanejad for the wrist shot that eluded Price.

74 seconds later, Adam Fox scored to put the Blueshirts ahead.

It came during a dominant shift in the Canadiens’ zone and right after Price stopped a point blank shot by Ryan Strome.  Fox fired a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that got through, helped by a screen by Chris Kreider.

From that point on, the Rangers just poured it on. Three minutes later, Ryan Strome scored a power play goal after an interference penalty by Brendan Gallagher.

Strome deflected a shot from the blueline by Anthony DeAngelo and the Ranger had a two goal lead with less than five minutes left in the game.

That goal took the heart out of the Canadiens who have made a habit of blowing third period leads.  With the goalie pulled, Ryan Strome cleared the puck and it looked like it was going to be a Artemi Panarin empty netter, but the puck got past him and went all the way down the ice for the final blow.

It was a stirring victory and another example of the never say die attitude that this eam has discovered over the last month.   Bring on the Flyers!

My three stars of the game

1. Adam Fox had a spectacular game.  He shook off  directing a puck into his own net in the first period and played the second most minutes on the team, notching a goal and an assist on five shots.  Fox is turning into a big time player, assisting on the crucial first goal and scoring the game winning goal.
2. Mika Zibanejad had a lot of trouble getting rid of the leash the Canadiens threw over him the first two periods, but when he broke out in the third period, he was dominant.  In the third period of a tie game, when the Rangers can throw out Zibanejad and Panarin, teams will have a hard time stopping them.
3. Alexandar Georgiev had another excellent game, keeping the Rangers in the game when they needed big save most.  Again he allowed only one goal when he was beaten with the first  Montreal goal a deflection of Adam Fox’s skate.  His stop on Dale Weise’s breakaway and his stop of Danault’s point blank shot were sublime.

The official three stars of the game

1. Adam Fox
2. Thomas Tatar
3. Mika Zibanejad

What’s next

It’s a short turnaround as the Rangers travel to Philadelphia to take on the red hot Flyers.  The game is set for 7pm and the main question is who will be in goal for the Rangers.  A gambler would put money on Alexandar Georgiev.