The New York Rangers took care of business, beating the Dallas Stars 4-2 to move within three points of the wild card.
After a bad loss to the New Jersey Devils, the New York Rangers needed a fast start and a win. The Blueshirts did exactly that, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before allowing two late goals that made it a close game for the last ten minutes.
It was a game when everyone stepped up, especially the rookies. Kaapo Kakko had a two goal game, Adam Fox got the Rangers an early lead and Igor Shesterkin was back to being a steel trap in net. Of course, Mika Zibanejad scored, but he does that every game. It was a fabulous effort and the final score didn’t reflect how well the Blueshirts played.
With the win, the Rangers now have 78 points. Carolina won and now have 81 points and are ahead of Columbus in the wild card due to games played. The Islanders were able to steal a point by tying their game in Vancouver with a third period goal, but lost in a shootout 5-4. Former Ranger J.T. Miller did the Blueshirts a big favor by scoring the only goal in the shootout. The Isles now have 80 points, two more than the Rangers, but the Blueshirts own the tiebreaker.
For some reason, the Rangers are playing better on the road than at home and this was another example. They now have 19 road wins, one more than they have at home. It was a characteristics of the great Rangers teams of the mid-2010’s, they were road warriors and this young team is showing that same ability.
Shesterkin had a great rebound game from a less than stellar effort on Saturday. He wasn’t busy the first two periods, but still made some outstanding stops. It was in the third period that he excelled. While he allowed two goals, he made an number of brilliant stops to keep the Stars out of the game.
There is little doubt that he will be in net on Wednesday in the second of back-to-back games as they take on Colorado.
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The Rangers may have to make a roster move as Filip Chytil left the game in the first period with a lower body injury. He played only six shifts and it was unclear how he was hurt. He took a big hit from Stephen Johns at the 16:24 mark and return for one 35 second shift before leaving the game for good.
As the team is carrying the minimum 12 forwards and six defensemen, if Chytil is unable to play they will need to bring a player up from Hartford. Quinn called it a “day to day injury.”
This has to be a big confidence boost for Kaapo Kakko. He had scored only one goal in his last 28 games and it’s the way he scored the two goals that was impressive. The first was a quick snap shot that he took with no hesitation. The second was a dazzling display of stickhandling as he took the puck around Ben Bishop to score. They were goal scorers’ goals.
It was a rock solid game for the Rangers and they didn’t let up even with the big lead. Dallas came up with a big push in the third period, but the Rangers were able to hold them off. Now, it’s on to Colorado for another must-win game.