Rangers defensive clinic in 4-1 win over Ducks

About the game

The Rangers played a solid road period, but should have come out of it with the lead when they had two power plays on a double minor to Trevor Zegras for high sticking Morgan Barron and drawing blood.  The Rangers spent most of the four minutes in the Ducks’ zone, but their passes were not crisp and they gave the puck away repeatedly.  They did get five shots on goal, but Stolarz got his big body in the way. The Rangers thought they had scored when Stolarz kicked the puck into the net as the power play wore down, but the referee blew a quick whistle and it clearly was before the puck crossed the goal line.

For the last nine minutes of the period, the teams exchanged chances with Zegras hitting the crossbar off a Georgiev save.  That was the best chance for Anaheim as the Rangers controlled play most of the rest of the period.

The second period was a better period for Anaheim as they pressed, but the Rangers kept most of their shots away from Georgiev. He made his best save of the game just over five minutes into the period when he made a pad save on a breakaway by Sam Steel.

The Ducks got on the board 11:05 into the period on a horrible giveaway by K’Andre Miller.  He completely fanned on a pass and Troy Terry took the puck and fed Isac Lundestrom  who was wide open in front of the net.

So, it was one mistake in the defensive zone and one goal for Anaheim and things didn’t look great for the Blueshirts.  Then, MIka Zibanejad stepped up and knotted the score after Kaapo Kakko hit the side of the net, but recovered the puck and fed Zibanejad who banked the shot off an Anaheim defender.

Answering back just three minutes after the Ducks goal was key and it took the crowd right out of the game.

The third period was all Rangers.  Jarred Tinordi wasted no time on a shot from the blue line and it eluded everybody and gave him his first goal in almost two years.

He scored just 1:46 into the period so the Rangers had to hang onto the lead for 18 minutes. With 10 minutes to go, Ryan Lindgren took a slapshot from the blueline over Stolarz’s right shoulder as he was screened by Tim Gettinger.

The teams exchanged penalties late in the third period and the Ducks ended up with a two man advantage for 1:44 when they pulled Stolarz.  Instead, it was Ryan Lindgren who pounced on the puck coming out of the penalty box for the empty net goal and the first two goal game of his career and two points, tying the most he has ever had in an NHL game.

Here is a video recap of the game.

As impressive as the shot total was, it wasn’t as one-sided as it looked.  According to Naturalstattrick.com, the Ducks 25 scoring chances compared to 29 for the Rangers including 12 high danger chances.  The Ducks had 52 shot attempts, but only 14 got through to Georgiev.

Notes on the game

With the win, it gives the Rangers 50 points and a tie with the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Canes have three games in hand.  The last time they reached 50 points in a season in only 36 games was in 2011-12.

This was the Rangers 13th road win, tied for the league lead with Carolina, Calgary and Nashville.

The Rangers record against teams currently in the playoffs is 7-9-1. Against non-playoff teams it is 16-0-3.

Adam Fox had one assist and moved back into a tie for the scoring lead among blueliners with 31 points. Of course, Cale Makar is getting all of the headlines for his 15 goals, a pretty spectacular total though he has 30 points, six behind Fox and Victor Hedman.

Trevor Zegras made headlines when he flipped the puck over the net from behind and Sonny Milano batted it in. He tried it again in this game, but with no success.

The Rangers were 0-5 on the power play, but Lindgren scored his first goal just three seconds after a penalty had expired, so it was a virtual PP goal.  It was the first time they didn’ t score when they had as many as five power plays in a game.

The penalty kill was three for three and they have now killed 50 of 54 penalties since November 21.   They have allowed a power play goal in only four games of the last 18.

Morgan Barron notched his first NHL assist on the goal by Ryan Lindgren.  He also won seven of eight faceoffs while playing 10:19. He also had two hits, three shots on goal and one takeaway.

When Greg McKegg shot the puck into the stands in the third period, it was the third time this season and they have killed all three penalties.

Jarred Tinordi had previously scored one goal in 107 games spread over seven NHL seasons. His only other goal was scored when he was with the Nashville Predators in a win over the Capitals in January 2020.  He did score eight goals in one season in the AHL.

It was a good night for the standings as four Metropolitan Division teams lost though it took overtime for Carolina, Washington and Philadelphia.  The Devils lost to Columbus in another Met Division match-up.  The Rangers moved one point ahead of Washington into second place and picked up two points on the Penguins who saw their 10 game winning streak snapped.

Artemi Panarin has now missed 20 games since signing with the Rangers in 2019. The team’s record without him in the lineup is 8-11-1.

My 3 stars of the game

1. Ryan Lindgren is well deserving of the number one star for his two goals.  He also played over 23 minutes, second to Adam Fox, and had three shots along with a hit and a blocked shot.
2. Jarred Tinordi gets the second star for his game winning goal.  He was an adventure in the defensive zone, but held his own and should get credit for not wasting any time and taking the shot quickly.   It worked.
3. Mika Zibanejad stepped up when he needed to and tied the game with the most important goal of the game for the Rangers. He had extra jump all game and led the way for the Blueshirts.

The official 3 stars (what game were they watching?)

1. Mika Zibanejad – Rangers
2. Troy Terry – Anaheim
3. Chris Kreider – Rangers

What’s next

The Rangers travel the 32 miles up the I-5 to downtown Los Angeles for a meeting with the Kings on Monday night.  After 22 years, the Staples Center has been renamed the Crypto.com Arena.

Game time Monday night is 10:30p  EST so it will be an even later night for Blueshirts fans.  After Monday’s game, the team has two full days off until the west coast portion of this five-game road trip concludes on Thursday night in San Jose.