Rangers outlast Red Wings in overtime 5-4

The New York Rangers keep finding ways to win.  They took the second game of a road back-to-back  with a tried and true formula, a late power play tying goal and a win in overtime.  It really shouldn’t have been necessary against a challenged team like the Red Wings, but the Rangers’ play was nowhere near as crisp as it was the night before and they got substandard goaltending from Alexandar Georgiev.

Georgiev admitted after the game that he had a tough start. “Not the best start for sure, just had to get through it and keep going.”  He did say that it helped that the score was tied after the first period. He said “It was good for me, they bailed me out, kept scoring…they played great.”

Gallant was asked if he ever considered pulling Georgiev and his answer was one word. “Nope.”

In fact, both goalies were less than great.  Georgiev allowed four goals with two on the power play, with the Expected Goals For at 1.74.  Alex Nedeljkovic was shaky at times and allowed five goals, more than the Expect Goals For total of 3.84.

Still, it never felt like the Blueshirts were out of the game and when they got a power play with only four minutes left, a tie game felt inevitable.  It’s actually getting a little ridiculous.  This was the Rangers’ 24th come-from-behind win of the season, leading the league and the most in team history.

Gerard Gallant was philosophical  about the effort. “Finding a way…it wasn’t pretty, but one of those games. Tonight was a different type of game than last night, but the bottom line is we get two big points and we move on.”

He expected a letdown “I expected us not to be same as last night…it’s just not the same atmosphere…it was sort of back and forth…but we found a way to stay close all night and got the result at the end.”

It’s easy to pick on a team when it takes overtime to beat a team like Detroit, but playing back-to-back games on the road isn’t easy.   This was their fourth such set of games this season and they have won both games twice, lost both games once and had one split.  Overall, in the second game of back-to-backs the Rangers have a 7-4-1 record.

Should we be alarmed by the fact that they were trashed by the Devils and had to take the Sabres and Red Wings to win in their last three games against non-playoff teams?  No.  For the simple fact that they are NOT playoff teams.  Their record against playoff teams since February 1 is 12-1-0.

About the game

The Rangers got off to a good start with several strong shifts.  Right after the third line kept the Red Wings pinned in their zone, the fourth line took the puck right back in and it was Ryan Reaves who corralled a bouncing puck and put it past Alex Nedeljkovic.  The goal came just 3:23 into the game.

The lead lasted all of six and a half minutes when Michael Rasmussen scored at 9:59 on an unscreened shot from beyond the left faceoff circle that slipped through Georgiev’s legs. It was not a good goal.

At 15:26 Andrew Copp was called for tripping and the Red Wings power play took over. The penalty killers kept the Wings at bay and Georgiev made at least one great stop, but with three seconds left Jakub Vrana had an unscreened shot from the right faceoff circle and it went through Georgiev’s legs.

That was a shot that had no business going in.

The Rangers answered right back with Filip Chytil scoring his seventh goal of the season.

Chytil had been tossed from the faceoff circle so Lafreniere took the draw and won it, getting the puck to Braden Schneider who fed Patrik Nemeth for the one-time that Chytil tipped past Nedeljkovic.  The goal came just 11 seconds after the Red Wings goal.

It was a nice reward for Nemeth who had made some excellent plays on defense.

The period ended with the score tied 1-1.  The Rangers held a slight edge in shots and had more high danger chances. The only problem was the second period would start with a Detroit power play after a Greg McKegg tripping penalty.

Just 29 seconds into the second period, Tyler Bertuzzi scored on a slap shot from the blueline.  There was a partial screen, but this was another shot that you would expect your goalie to get a piece of.

At 12:15, Artemi Panarin knotted the score on a nice pass from Frank Vatrano.  Panarin jumped off the bench to join the play and for once, he shot the puck.

The second period ended tied 3-3 though it could have been more one-sided.  The Rangers had twice the shot attempts of the Red Wings (22-11)

Adam Erme put the Red Wings ahead yet again on a broken play in the Rangers’ zone. Pius Suter won the faceoff when it deflected off the linesman right to Marc Staal who took the shot. It was off target, but hit Erme’s skate and got control and put a backhander through traffic past Georgiev.  Of all the goals, this was one that the Rangers’ goalie had the least chance of stopping.

So the Red Wings had to nurse a one goal lead for 14:04 and the Rangers pushed hard.  Finally, the Blueshirts were awarded their second power play on the night when Dryden Hunt was high sticked and you know what happened.  Chris Kreider scored another power play goal.

Taking the pass from Artemi Panarin, he tried to pass to Andrew Copp in front of the net, but the puck hit defenseman Moritz Seider’s skate and richocheted into the net.

The Red Wings had the first possession in overtime, but the Rangers second unit of Panarin, Copp and K’Andre Miller got the puck back and Panarin and Copp broke into the attacking zone and Panarin fed Copp for the game winning goal.

It was a total breakdown on defense by Detroit as they allowed the odd man rush unimpeded. The goals came 1:34 into the overtime period.

After losing three of their first four in overtime the Rangers have won seven of their last nine games that have gone to overtime or a shootout.

Here is a video recap of the game:

My 3 Rangers stars

1. Artemi Panarin led the way offensively with  a goal and two assists.  He scored the key tying goal late in the second period, then did his thing setting up Chris Kreider on the power play and then Andrew Copp in overtime. His passing is simply awesome and his shot is devastating, when he decides to shoot.
2. Andrew Copp was outstanding, scoring the winning goal, winning 60% of his faceoffs and second on the team with five shots. He’s done a fine job filling at center for Ryan Strome.
3. Chris Kreider is the Rangers’ Mr Clutch and he continues his amazing run to 50 goals. One more power play goal and he owns the franchise record and he is nine goals behind Jaromir Jagr’s club record of 54 goals with 14 games to play.  He may not set the record, but he has a good chance to be the team’s fourth 50 goal scorer.

The official 3 stars

1. Andrew Copp – Rangers
2. Moritz Seider – Red Wings
3. Artemi Panarin – Rangers

What’s next

The Islanders are next up on the schedule on Friday at Madison Square Garden.  Sunday night it’s the Flyers and then a rematch with the Devils on Tuesday. The Rangers play 14 games in the first 29 days of the month of April.   The playoff are not far away.