Rangers winning streak at 3 games as they beat the Devils 6-3

About the game

The Devils got off to a fast start on their first two shifts before the Rangers got they game legs. They were given a gift just 1:33 into the game when Sami Vatanen took a double minor for high sticking Brendan Lemieux in the mouth and drawing blood.  That’s when Adam Fox took over at the 2:06 mark.

Fox channeled Brian Leetch or Neal Pionk and made an end to end rush, finishing by beating Mackenzie Blackwood.  The Devils were taken flatfooted on the rush, probably expecting a pass to a trailing Mika Zibanejad.   It was a spectacular goal and gave the Blueshirts the 1-0 lead.

The Rangers couldn’t do much with the rest of the power play, but they padded their lead on a goal by Ryan Strome five minutes later.

Kaapo Kakko, playing his first game in two weeks, was able to intercept the Devils’ clearing attempt and got the puck to Chris Kreider who fed Strome who was all alone in front of the net and he put a backhand past Blackwood.

Up two goals, the Rangers looked confident and were dominant, not allowing a Devils shot in over ten minutes.   With 7:48 to go in the period Filip Chytil was stopped by Blackwood on a breakaway and  a minutes later he stopped  Lemieux on a two-on-one. Energized by the work of their goalie, that’s when the ceiling caved in for the Rangers for the only  time in the entire game.

The Devils cut the lead in half when P.K. Subban fired a shot from the blue line that eluded Georgiev.  It might have been a shot he could have stopped and it came after a prolonged shift in the Rangers zone.

Just 17 seconds later, it was Mikhail Maltsev who made a nice move to the net past  a bunch of immobile Rangers and he put the puck past Georgiev. It was Chytil’s only bad play of the game as he let Maltsev get through the Rangers zone to the net.

So the score was tied 2-2 and the Rangers were on their heels.  That’s when the third line made up for their mistakes on the Maltsev goal.

Not even two minutes had passed when Julien Gauthier fed Chutil for a two on one break with Kevin Rooney.   Chytil gave Rooney a nice backhand pass and the ex-Devil beat his former teammate to give the Rangers the lead right back.

The first period ended with the Rangers with a 14-5 shot advantage including another Rangers breakaway thwarted when Ryan Strome was stopped by Blackwood in the final minute   There was huge improvement on faceoffs as each team won nine. It was still a wild period with five goals scored and numerous odd man rushes and breakaways.

The Rangers took only a minute to get on the scoreboard in the second period to restore the two goal lead.

The play was made by K’Andre Miller who carried the puck into the Devils’ zone and behind the net. He fed a pass to Pavel Buchnevich at the point who got the pass to Libor Hajek who whipped a shot past a screened Blackwood.  It was Hajek’s second NHL goal and his first score in two years.

That was the only goal of the second period that ended with the Devils outshooting the Rangers 12-9.

The Rangers played  very solid defensive game in the third period that held until 8:38 when Filip Chytil scored to make the score 4-1.

It was a nice play by Julien Gauthier who took the puck away from the Devil at the blue line.  He carried it past the Devils goal and put a pass out to Chytil who was in front of the net,  Chytil made a nice move from his forehand to his backhand for the shot and the goal.

Up 5-2, the Devils got a goal from Nathan Bastian with under three minutes left.  It was shot that Georgiev should have stopped.  All it meant was that the Devils had to pull their goalie and the Rangers Ryan Strome put in an empty net goal to make the final score 6-2.

It was a very solid win and except for that 17 second span in the first period, the Rangers controlled the game.