Isles beat Rangers 2-0 and this one hurt
By Steve Paulus
About the game
The first period was an exciting, crisply played period that had only seven play stoppages. Both teams had moments of pressure, but there were no outstanding scoring chances. It was a case of solid defense overcoming offense, for both team. The statistics were fairly even with the Rangers outshooting the Islanders 9-7 and out hitting them 11-8.
Each team had four scoring chances at even strength and the Islanders had the only high danger scoring chance. The Rangers had an early opportunity when Michael Del Colle was sent off for hooking Jacob Trouba 1:21 into the game, but they could only muster one shot on goal . The first power play unit had no shots.
The second period was more of the same, but with more play stoppages. Again, the Rangers got the only power play when Julien Gauthier drew a hooking call on Noah Dobson. The power play came 6:14 minutes into the period, and the top unit had two shots on goal by Zibanejad and Kreider. Believe it or not, the Rangers won all four faceoffs during the man advantage.
The Rangers won 15 out of 20 draws in the second period, while the Islanders held the shots advantage 12-10.
In the third period, the Rangers started to make things happen offensively. About two minutes into the period, K’Andre Miller fed Artemi Panarin for a breakaway and he missed, shooting the puck into Varlamov’s glove.
About a minute and a half later, Zibanejad came in on a two on one with Chris Kreider. The Swede opted to take the shot and Varlamov made the save.
When the Rangers didn’t score on those opportunities, you knew it was going to be an ugly goal that would break the tied and sure enough, it was, scored by the hardworking Islander fourth line. With that line forechecking deeply, Libor Hajek made an ill-advised blind pass right up the middle to Adam Pelech who took the shot and in ensuing scramble in front of the net, Casey Cizikas was able to score.
The goal came with 8:45 left in the game. It’s worth noting that all three members of the Islanders’ fourth line had crashed the net.
Just 2:05 later, the entire Ranger team fell asleep allowing Cal Clutterbuck to skate down the right side into the Ranger’s zone and he fed a streaking Matt Martin who was nor picked up by anyone and he put it behind Igor Shesterkin.
Down 2-0 to a shutdown defense, it looked grim for the Rangers. They were able to get one more prime scoring opportunity when Panarin fed Kakko who was open in the slot. Varlamov was able to stop that one too.
The Rangers pulled Shesterkin and got ha power play when Adam Pelech shot the puck into the stands, but with only 54 seconds left, the Rangers were unable to mount any kind of threat. As usual, they played catch with the puck, looking for the perfect shot. It was as if they thought they were down only one goal and not two.