Miracle on Madison: Rangers Stun Stars with Late Heroics
There are those standard Rangers victories that you’ll excitedly share with fellow fans at work or school the next day, but try to make a casual hockey fan excited; it won’t work. Then, you have wins like Thursday night which will make any sports fan jump out of their seats and reminds you of why you feel passionate about Rangers hockey.
Trailing 1-0 in the waning seconds of regulation and starting at being shutout by the Western Conference-leading Dallas Stars on home ice, K’Andre Miller whipped one past Jake Oettinger with 0.9 seconds remaining to tie it before Adam Fox’s overtime tally sent MSG into delirium. The triumph pushed the Rangers to 13-2-2 in their last 17 games and their point streak to seven. Here are my takeaways from the enthralling victory.
TOO MANY MISTAKES:
We’ll remember it for how it ended, but if K’Andre Miller’s attempt had been blocked, stopped, or gone wide, this would be the topic of conversation in Rangerstown. It reached the point where teammates were injuring each other, as Julien Gauthier, injured last game, received the brunt of a hit from linemate Sammy Blais and left the contest with another upper-body injury. Dallas has risen to the cream of the crop out West due to their stingy defense and shut the Blueshirts down with their aggressive play in the defensive zone for 59 minutes and 59 seconds of the contest, which included four failed Rangers power plays.
Conversely, the pressure spilled into the neutral zone, where the Rangers struggled with their East-West breakouts and turned the puck over a staggering 18 times. While New York’s defensive corps and goaltender Igor Shesterkin kept the Star-studded Dallas offense in check, the mistakes became one too many when Ryan Lindgren broke his stick on Tyler Seguin’s back, sending the Stars to the man advantage. Then, an ill-timed change by Barclay Goodrow, where he signaled for Mika Zibanejad to come on for him before flip-flopping only to reconfirm his choice, gave Dallas an extra second and an extra player. It led to a streaking Tyler Seguin sneaking into the zone, receiving a pass from Mason Marchment, and beating Shesterkin on the right side at the 17:53 mark or the second period for the game’s first strike.
Goodrow has been a Gearard Gallant favorite this year, and this won’t change much, but he’s made critical mental mistakes in two of the last three contests.
LAFFY’S BIG OPPORTUNITY:
With Chris Kreider out due to a shoulder injury he sustained in Tuesday’s 4-3 Rangers shootout win over the Minnesota Wild, Alexis Lafreniere was penciled in as the top left winger. He reached a career-high in ice time, playing 21:21 with Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko, while also receiving time on the first power play unit and in overtime.
With goals at a premium and both teams playing defensive-minded hockey, Lafreniere got away unscathed with three shots on goal and three giveaways to show for his efforts. One of those shots was an impressive deflection on a shot from Fox in the third period, which Oettinger stopped.
You try to keep it simple. You play with good players, so try to get pucks for them, especially on the power play being the net front. You’ve got to get pucks in the corners and stuff like that, the 21-year-old said in his postgame presser.
“So, just try to get them as many pucks as I can and get back to my position and either screen the goalie or be an option for them.”
PLAYING ALL 60:
Out of all the quotes from the players after the euphoric win, this one from Adam Fox accurately summarized the team mentality of late; “We talk about playing for 60 minutes, and this is why. It took the full 60. We played to the last second.”
The effort ultimately led to success when New York snagged a point in the standings with Miller’s buzzer-beater. The play began with a shot from Artemi Panarin; as players crashed the net to control the juicy rebound, Vincent Trocheck tapped the puck back to Miller, whose initial attempt was blocked but had just enough time to get a second one through and made it count to force overtime. Uplifted from the dramatic shift in momentum and 18,006 jubilant fans behind the glass, the Blueshirts focused on netting the extra point in the extra session.
After both teams spent much of the first minute trying to set up, Zibanejad took the puck away from Miro Heiskanen before making a cross-seam pass to Panarin, who let it hit the boards first before grabbing it. Once he did, the breadman drove to the net, where Oettinger denied him. Still, the disc was soon settled by Zibanejad, who, after being poke checked by the Stars goalie, fed Fox, who outwaited everyone and backhanded the game-winner home to complete their 12th comeback victory of the year, which ranks second in the NHL.
MARV’S 3 STARS:
3 IGOR SHESTERKIN:
He had a light workload, only facing 25 shots, but he made many quality saves that had the crowd chanting his name and kept the team in it. Shesterkin has been 10-2-3 since the beginning of December with a 2.29 GAA and a .922 save percentage.
2 K’ANDRE MILLER:
The defenseman was out there in that situation because he deserved it.
He’s blossoming into a good defenseman and key contributor for us, the Norris-Trophy-winning Fox said.
“You’ve seen it the past few games, but I don’t think it’s new to us. We’ve seen it from last year to now, and (Miller) is an important player for us. The sky’s the limit.” Miller scoring the most dramatic goal of the Rangers season is a continuation of his hot play, as he’s now recorded points in four consecutive games. This year is significant for the 22-year-old as he will be a restricted free agent this Summer and has enjoyed a breakout season to date, with 22 points (four goals, 18 assists) in 42 games to go along with his 88 hits and 51 blocked shots while averaging 22:13 of ice time.
1 ADAM FOX:
Aside from his winner, his fourth of the year, the defenseman was credited with an assist on Miller’s goal and finished with a two-point night while recording an impactful 28:38 of ice time, improving the team record to 10-0-0 this season when he gets on the scoresheet. Fox extended his point streak to six games, with two goals and 11 points in that span.