On January 15 in NYR history: 16 straight wins against the Hurricanes

The New York Rangers totally dominated the Carolina Hurricanes for eight years

What happened on January 15 in the history of the New York Rangers

On this date in 2019, the New York Rangers won their 16th straight game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden, by far the longest home winning streak for the Blueshirts against any NHL franchise.

It was a dominant 6-2 win featuring three power play goals by the Rangers.  The score was tied 1-1 until 12:41 of the first period when Mika Zibanejad scored the first of his two goals to put he Rangers ahead for good.  Scoring was unusual with three different Rangers (Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich, Tony DeAngelo) each scoring twice.

The streak had started on January 5, 2011 with a 2-1 win on an overtime goal by Mats Zuccarello.  Henrik Lundqvist was the winning goalie in 13 of the 16 games.  The other three games were won by Martin Biron, Cam Talbot and Alexandar Georgiev.

The streak ended the next game on February 8 when the Hurricanes won, 3-0, at the Garden.

The next longest home winning streak for the Rangers is 11 games over the Philadelphia Flyers from 1990 to 1992.  They have had two other ten game home winning streaks against the St. Louis Blues and again, the Flyers.

Two Hall of Famers swap teams

In 1936, the Rangers acquired future Hall of Fame defenseman Art Coulter from the Chicago Blackhawks for another future Hall of Fame defensemnan in Earl Seibert.  in this case, it was all star for all star as  the 24 year old  Seibert had been a First Team NHL All-Star in 1934-35 and the 26 year old Coulter had been a Second Team All-Star the same year.

How did it work out?  Seibert was a First or Second Team All-Star for nine straight years after the trade and won a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 1938.  He had also been on the Rangers 1933 Cup champions.

Coulter played seven years with the Rangers, serving as team captain for four years and making the Second Team All-Star squad three times.  He was a key member of the 1940 Stanley Cup Championship team and won a Cup with Chicago in 1934.

Seibert is remembered for his role in the death of hockey legend Howie Morenz.  While with the Blackhawks, Seibert and Morenz  got tangled behind the Chicago net and Morenz broke his leg in four places when his skate  got stuck in the boards.  Morenz, acknowledged as hockey’s first superstar, died of a pulmonary embolism weeks later, a complication from the injury.

This was one blockbuster trade where both side benefited equally in a trade of star players.

Two milestones against the Rangers

On this date in 1950, Terry Sawchuk of the Detroit Red Wings got his first NHL shutout as the Wings beat the Rangers 1-0 at home.   It was the first of 115 career shutouts (including playoffs) for the Hall of Fame goaltender.

Ironically, Sawchuk was a New York Ranger when he got his last shutout and the 103rd regular season shutout of his career on February 1, 1970.  It was 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

On this date in 1979 it was a bad night for the Rangers as Minnesota North Stars Tim Young scored five goals in one game against the Rangers.   It was a lopsided 8-1 loss at Madison Square Garden.  It was only the third time that an opposing player had scored as many as five goals in a game against New York.

The record is held by Syd Howe of the Detroit Red Wings who scored six goals against the Blueshirts in 1944.   Young is one of  four players who have scored five goals in a game in franchise history.  Bernie Geoffrion did it in 1955 for Montreal. Mario Lemieux of the Penguins scored five goals in 1993 and Marian Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild did it most recently in 2007.

Today’s birthdays

Of the 23 NHL players born on January 15, only one played for New York

Willie Huber was born on this date in 1958 in Strasskirchen, Germany.   He played just over four years for the Rangers, from 1983 to 1988.  He was a big (6’5″) defenseman and was the second German born player to don the Rangers jersey.  The others were Walt Tkaczuk and Randy Gilhen.   Although born in Germany, Huber moved to Canada as an infant and played his junior hockey in Canada.  He is known for coming to the Rangers in a trade for fan favorite Ron Duguay.

The numbers

The Rangers have played 34 games on January 15 and are dead even with a .500 points percentage.

Games: 34
Regulation wins: 12
Regulation losses: 13
Ties: 8
Overtime wins: 1
Points percentage:  .500

One year ago

The Rangers were off on this date, preparing for the second game of a home and home against the Islanders.