What a comeback! A 5-2 win over the Capitals

Notes on the game

Igor Shesterkin evened his record at 8-8, but his won-loss record belies his statistics.  He stopped 30 of 32 shots and easily made a half dozen excellent saves to keep the Rangers in this game.

He is now fifth in the league in Save Percentage (.925%) and eighth in Goals Against Average (2.32).   That Save Percentage is the best in the East Division.

Ryan Strome now has a nine game assist streak, one off Rod Gilbert’s franchise record for a forward.  He also had points in 10 straight games.

Adam Fox has an eight-game points streak and eight straight games with assists.  He is still seven behind Brian Leetch’s franchise record of 15 straight games with an assist.

Fox now has 30 points in 35 games, only the third Ranger defenseman to do it along with Leetch and Sergei Zubov. It’s also been 25 years since a Ranger defenseman had 20 points in a month. Of course, it was Leetch who did it five times along with Brad Park who did it once.

Adam Fox’s game winning goal was a fabulous rush off a great deflection by Ryan Lindgren of a clearing pass and and an excellent keep-in and pass from Panarin.

Kaapo Kakko scored the tying goal on feeds from Panarin and Strome.  After the game Kakko said “Just go to the net and they will find me” and that is exactly what they did.  His game is getting better and better. On Adam Fox’s winning goal, Kakko tied up defender Justin Schultz, allowing a lane for Fox to score.

There is no denying the importance of Filip Chytil’s breakaway goal in the first period that game the Rangers life and got them back into the game.

The play was all Chytil as he stole the puck and got the breakout to score.

This was the fifth three point game of the season for Artemi Panarin and he hit one crossbar.

The Capitals have now lost only two games of their last 14 and both have come to the Rangers.

This was only the second game in the last 10 that Alex Ovechkin didn’t score a goal and again, it was the Rangers who stopped him.

Tom Wilson went a little nuts at the end of the game, retaliating for a Brendan Smith cross check that sent T.J Oshie to the bench doubled over.

He took a minor penalty and was given a 10 minutes misconduct.  Props to Alexandar Georgiev who took a swipe at Wilson as he passed the bench, jawing with Rangers players .

The Rangers penalty kill was successful twice in three attempts including a six on four with the goalie pulled.  The power play was scoreless in two attempts. Both Ranger power plays were pretty ineffective.

David Quinn was able to roll four lines and the bottom six had some excellent shifts.  The only forward who played more than 20 minutes was Mika Zibanejad.

The Capitals dominated in the faceoff circle, winning 56% of the draws.  Strome was above .500, winning six of 11 faceoffs.

The Rangers have won four of six games against the Capitals. The final two games of the season series are in May at Madison Square Garden.

Pavel Buchnevich scored a shorthanded empty net goal in the game’s waning moments. It was the fifth shorthanded goal of the season for the Rangers, second most in the league. Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad lead the team with two shorthanded goals on the season.

My 3 Rangers stars of the game

1. Adam Fox gets the number one star because of his game winning goal, a fantastic individual effort that put the Rangers ahead for good.  The go ahead goal was absolutely crucial  in a 2-2 contest with over 13 minutes left in the game.  He also led all Rangers skaters in ice time with 25:09 minutes
2. Artemi Panarin had a three point game, scoring the fourth Ranger goal on a breakaway.  He fed Fox for the go ahead goal and also set up Kakko’s tying goal.  Just another night’s work for the Breadman.
3. Igor Shesterkin stole this game for the Rangers in the first 11 minutes of the first period.  True, he made some fabulous saves later in the game, but in the first period he was fantastic and kept the Rangers in the game.

The official 3 stars

1. Artemi Panarin
2. Igor Shesterkin
3. Kaapo Kakko

East Division

Tuesday’s games

Rangers 5, Capitals 2
Bruins 5,  Devils 4 (Shootout)

Standings

1-  Washington    35   23-8-4      50 points
2- Islanders          36   22-10-4     48 points
3- Pittsburgh        36   23-11-2    48 points
4- Boston              32    18-9-5      41 points
5- Philadelphia    34   17-13-4     38 points
6- Rangers            35   16-15-4    36 points
7- New Jersey       34  13-16-5    31 points
8- Buffalo               34    6-23-5     17 points

What’s next

The Rangers travel to Buffalo for games Thursday and Saturday.  The Sabres have a chance to end their 18 game losing streak when they play the Flyers on Wednesday.  If they lose, the Rangers will have two games against a team that is long overdue for a win.