This was a game to silence the doubters. Less than four minutes into the game the New York Rangers were down 2-0 to the Maple Leafs while being outshot 5-0. They looked slow, were losing every puck battle and it seemed like it was going to be a rout. Three hours later, they were celebrating a decisive comeback win over one of the better teams in the NHL.
The biggest hero was an unlikely one as Ryan Reaves scored the first two Rangers goals to pull within 3-2 just three minutes into the second period. Coach Gerard Gallant said “He started the comeback for us, I know our team loves it when he gets in front of the net and scores those goals.” He cited Reaves’ physical play. “Obviously when he’s a big guy, forechecking like that, people don’t like to get hit. You can’t blame some of those defensemen, he’s a big man and he’s tough to maintain when he’s around the net.”
Reaves spoke after the game, saying he’s been “taking a lot of vitamins.” Asked about the goals, he said “It felt great. You never want to go three months without scoring, I tend to do that a lot in my career, but it feels good to get them out of the way…hopefully they’ll keep coming.”
Reaves acknowledged the significance of the win. “It shows we can hang with the big boys, we are one of the big boys, we gotta keep beating the playoff teams….we’re proving to the league and to ourselves and to the league that we’re contenders….the standings don’t lie.”
At that point it was the usual suspects for the Rangers as Igor Shesterkin kept the team in the game and that allowed Adam Fox to tie the score late in the second period. Ryan Strome scored the game winner early in the third. Chris Kreider scored an important third period insurance goal. Artemi Panarin ended up with two assists as did Mika Zibanejad while Fox ended up with two goals and an assist.
The Leafs pushed hard in the third period, but it was the Rangers who scored three times for the win. It was the second straight time they won the game in the third period and another example of this “flawed” Rangers team of finding a way to win.
It would have been easy for the Rangers to fold, down 3-1 after one period. It was a classic letdown in the first home game after a long road trip. They are only 7-6-2 when trailing after one period while Toronto was 14-2-1 when leading after one period. Toronto’s record when scoring first is 17-2-1.
Coach Gerard Gallant alluded to the road trip. “I was a little worried to be honest with you. We came out a little sleepy obviously, it just seems when you get back from those road trips for whatever reason, the first period’s tough. It was a tough one.”
But it was the fourth line that found a way to win. Ryan Strome said “Even without the goals, the whole game they were the only line that was able to get in there and forecheck and create turnovers and have sustained zone time and we fed off that…their work ethic is what fueled us and I think we found a spark from them.”
Two of the issues facing the Rangers since the start of the season have been depth scoring and 5v5 scoring. The fourth line took it upon themselves to solve those issues in this game.