The New York Rangers finally found some footing against a really good opponent. They defeated the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Friday night, in a heated and passionate battle that reminisced how the Blueshirts should look every night.
This past month and change has been painful to watch for any Rangers fan and it is hard to ignore the real possibility of not making the playoffs this year. But, at least for one night, it looked like things might be turning themselves around, slowly.
Back to basics
The Rangers won this game by going back to a simple, hard-nose hockey. The call-up of Matt Rempe was a key component to getting the victory, as he was quite useful in his 5:32 of ice time. We will get into more on Rempe in a minute.
This was arguably one of the best games of goaltender Igor Shesterkin's season if not his career. A 41-save masterpiece, he kept the Rangers in it for the victory. It has been a rocky time for Shesterkin, who has not been his usual self this season. at 11-12-1, he needed this one to rebuild his shattered confidence.
Dallas got on the board first, with a goal from Roope Hintz. He beat Shesterkin for his team-leading 14th goal of the season.
The goal scorers in this one for the Rangers were started by Reilly Smith, who scored on a shorthanded chance in the first period. His seventh of the year, he has a long way to make up ground after an underperforming start to the year. Vincent Trochek was also able to get on the scoresheet with his ninth of the year, and then Chris Kreider finished it off with an empty netter for his 11th of the year.
Remember talking about Rempe before, he was a big topic of conversation this game. He was ejected from the game after taking a run at Stars forward Miro Heiskannen. The Rangers were able to kill off the five-minute penalty kill, but its effect altered the trajectory of the game. Amazingly, the Rangers improved their record to 16-4-2 with Rempe in the lineup.
Matt Rempe gets tossed for this hit on Miro Heiskanen in his 1st game back up with the Rangers 😬 pic.twitter.com/uvVAxvILJd
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) December 21, 2024
The next stop for the Rangers is a tilt with Carolina on Sunday. At 16-15-1, they still sit in fifth place in the Metropolitan division. Every game will continue to be do-or-die for the Rangers.