The bad and good Rangers show up in 4-3 shootout loss

About the game

As far as games go, this was as weird a game as the Rangers will play all season.  The Rangers came out fast, with seven of the first 10 shot attempts.  The game as playing out just as you would expect when Cam York scored a totally unexpected goal, 5:54 into the game.  Nate Thompson won the faceoff getting the puck to York to whose one-timer from the point that eluded Shesterkin over his glove hand.  It was a shot that Shesterkin normally handles with ease, but it appeared to knuckle a bit on the way in.

Shesterkin hadn’t recovered from the goal when the Flyers struck again just 50 seconds later.  It was another bizarre play.  Martin Jones made a good save on Alexis Lafrenière and they got the puck to center ice where the Rangers recovered it. Jacob Trouba tried to move the puck forward but it hit Julien Gauthier’s skate, bouncing right to Kevin Hayes who passed to Owen Tippett.  He tried to get the puck back to Hayes driving to the net, but it hit K’Andre Miller and Tippett recovered and snapped a wrist shot past Shesterkin.

That was two lucky bounces for the Flyers and the stunned Garden crowd was looking at a 2-0 deficit.  That’s how the first period ended.

The Rangers offense picked up in the second period, aided by two power plays, but despite outshooting the Flyers 19-8, the period was scoreless, primarily thanks to Martin Jones.

Things looked very bad in the third period when the Flyers added a third goal by Joe Farabee on a two-on-one just 44 seconds into the period. It was a total defensive breakdown that allowed Travis Sanheim and Farabee to break in with the Rangers caught up ice.  Both Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren turned the wrong way and the other Rangers were caught up ice.

The Rangers answered right back when a Jacob Trouba point shot was deflected by Artemi Panarin just 38 seconds later.

That ended over five straight periods of scoreless hockey for the Blueshirts and they continued pressing only to have Ryan Reaves go off for high sticking just about a minute after scoring.  Talk about buzzkill.   Things went from bad to worse when Panarin was called for a phantom hooking call leaving the Rangers only 13 minutes to mount the comeback.  The Rangers had no less than two breakaways during the Panarin penalty with Copp stopped by Jones and Kreider missing a set-up from Zibanejad.

The Blueshirts didn’t give up and they finally scored their second goal when Zibanejad was able to tap in the rebound of a blast from Frank Vatrano.

The shot hit Jones in the mask, knocking it off his face after Zibanejad had put in the rebound.

Just 12 seconds later, it was Artemi Panarin on the break-in who fed Andrew Copp for the typing goal on a bang bang play as Copp drove to the net.

Tie game and the Garden crowd was totally berserk.

They went absolutely nuts when Ryan Lindgren was tripped, giving the Rangers their third power play with just 3:11 left in the game.  The power play couldn’t come through and the game went to overtime.

The overtime was predictably wild with both teams exchanging prime chances.  Igor Shesterkin stopped three point blank shots from Morgan Frost while Martin Jones stopped shots from Barclay Goodrow and Vatrano.

It went to the shootout and Shesterkin made saves on Cam Atkinson and Owen Tippett before allowed Kevin Hayes to beat him on an off speed shot lifted over him into the top of the net.  On the other end, Jones stopped Mika Zibanejad while Panarin couldn’t get a shot off due to a rolling puck.  It came down to Filip Chytil and he almost scored on Jones’ five hole, but the Flyers’ goalie was able to close the gap and that was the game.

Here’s a full video recap of the game: