A penalty shot rarity for the New York Rangers
What happened on December 5 in the history of the New York Rangers
December 5 is a quiet day in New York Rangers history and the one notable event that occurred on this date wasn’t a good one for the Blueshirts. On December 5, 2002, the Rangers became the first team in NHL history to lose two games in overtime on penalty shots.
The first time it happened was on December 23, 2000 when David Legwand of the Nashville Predators scored to win the game 3-2 in overtime. This time, it was Michal Handzus of the Philadelphia Flyers.
The game was at the First Union Center in Philadelphia and the Blueshirts lost by the same score, 3-2. The penalty shot was called when Handzus was tackled by defenseman Tom Poti with only 36.7 seconds left in OT. Handzus beat goalie Dan Blackburn with a backhand over the goalie’s shoulder. This came seconds after Flyers goalie Roman Cechmanek had stopped Petr Nedved on a 2-on-1 break-in with Pavel Bure.
Blackburn was in goal for the 13th straight game after Mike Richter had suffered a concussion.
There were six penalty shots involving the Rangers in 2002, two for them and four against them. Pavel Bure scored on both of his attempts, while the Rangers stopped only one of the four penalty shots they gave up. Bure, along with Alex Shibecky, are the only Rangers to score twice on penalty shots.
The numbers
The Rangers have played 36 games on December 5 in their history. It’s been a good day for them with only 11 regulation losses.
Regulation wins: 17
Regulation losses: 11
Ties: 7
Overtime losses: 1
Points percentage: .597
Looking back
On each day, we look back at what the Rangers did one, five and ten years ago. They have played in two of the three years, including a memorable win last season.
Last year, 2019 – Rangers 3, Columbus 2
It was a triumphant return to Columbus for Artemi Panarin as the Rangers eked out a 3-2 win behind the stellar goaltending of Alexandar Georgiev. The Ranger goalie made 45 saves in the win, though it was Panarin who stole the show.
Although the crowd at Nationwide Arena booed him whenever he touched the puck, it didn’t daunt the former Blue Jacket and he had the perfect response, scoring the game winning goal at 15:32 of the third period.
Libor Hajek sprained his knee in the game, effectively ending his NHL season as he played only one game with the Rangers after recovering, spending the rest of the campaign in Hartford. It was an important Metropolitan Division contest and gave the Rangers a record of 14-10-3 for 31 points and dropped the Blue Jackets to a 11-13-4 record and 26 points.
5 years ago, 2015 – No game
10 years ago, 2010 – Ottawa 3, Rangers 1
The Rangers dropped a 3-1 decision to the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden. The Senators and Blueshirts exchanged shorthanded goals in the first period with Brandon Prust scoring for New York and Chris Kelly getting the first of his three goals.
Kelly added a goal in the third period at 17:36 and finished the hat trick by scoring into an empty net with one second left in the game. The loss gave the Rangers a record of 16-12-1.