Rangers revisited: Thrashing the Coyotes

On this date, Antti Raanta had one of the best games of his New York Rangers career

With no New York Rangers hockey until January, we will try to give all Ranger fans a taste of hockey by reliving the best moment on this date over the last five years.

The Ranges played only once on November 7 in the last five years and that was in 2015.  Antti Raanta made 39 saves as the Blueshirts dominated the Coyotes for a big 4-1 road win in Phoenix.

When the Rangers traded prospect Ryan Haggarty to the Chicago Blackhawks for a Finnish goalie named Antti Raanta, no one knew what the Blueshirts were getting. After two years of stellar back up work by Cam Talbot, the Rangers needed to find a new back up and Raanta filled the requirements in spades.

The only negative to this game was the fact that Raanta was deprived of his second shutout in three starts when Shane Doan scored a power play goal with only  4.6 second left in the game. It was a “you’ve got to be kidding” moment when Doan scored, but despite the late goal, it was a fantastic effort by a top New York Ranger team.

Raanta kept the Blueshirts in the game in the first period, when the Rangers were outshot 14-13, but scored the only goal, a Jesper Fast deflection of a Dan Girardi wrist shot.  They Rangers added two goals in less than three minutes in the second period to chase starting Arizona goalie Mike Smith.   J.T. Miller and   Chris Kreider scored those two goals to give the Blueshirts a 3-0 lead.

Kevin Hayes added a third period goal, the last scoring until Doan’s late goal.  It was a stellar effort by Raanta as the 40 shots were a season by by the Coyotes.

Here’s the late goal that broke up the shutout.

It was a big game for Keith Yandle as he made his return to Arizona where he had played for eight seasons before his deadline trade to New York the previous February.  Yandle didn’t score a goal, but got his seventh assists of the season on Hayes’ goal.

It would have been Raanta’s first road shutout, but it was not to be.  It looked like it was going to happen, especially when a Martin Hanzal goal power play earlier in the third period was waved off as it was ruled that he hit it in with a high stick.

Raanta went on to get that first road shutout in December 2016 against the Blackhawks, the team that traded him to New York.   Meanwhile, Raanta beat the Coyotes once more  the next season and then found himself traded to the Coyotes in June 2017.