The New York Rangers have gone into the third period trailing 10 times this season and lost every time. The 11th time was the charm as the Blueshirts came charging back from an early 2-0 deficit to win convincingly, 5-2 over the Washington Capitals.
The future was clearly on display as the key goals were scored by Filip Chytil, Kappo Kakko and Adam Fox along with stellar goaltending by Igor Shesterkin. Artemi Panarin didn’t hurt as he turned in a dominant performance. It was one of the most stirring games of the season, even better then the 9-0 thrashing of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Just four and half minutes into the game there was no one in Rangersland who would have predicted the final outcome. The Capitals came out swarming, took the first nine shots and scored two quick goals. The Blueshirts settled down and made it a game before exploding for four third period goals. Coach David Quinn said “I was proud of how the first period changed. because we got off to such a tough start, it’s not easy to turn the tide within a period.”
For some reason, the Rangers play the Capitals better than any other team in the East and have won four of the six games and it could easily have been all six. After the game, Quinn attributed that to the Rangers getting “up” for good teams. “We seem to, when we play the really good teams…we know that if we’re not on our A game, it could get ugly…for some reason we continue to play well against them. ”
As for Ranger fans, it’s games like this that drives them crazy. When they play like this did in this game, they can compete with any team in the NHL, but it doesn’t happen enough.
Here’s a full recap of the game with all of the goals.
Now, with a win over the Capitals under their belt, they take on the Buffalo Sabres twice on the road followed by two crucial matchups with the Pittsburgh Penguins. With only 21 games left, the playoffs will be a challenge, but all they can do is keep winning.