New York Rangers survive late scare to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime
A very poor Rangers performance against one of the bottom feeders in the NHL sees the team walk away from the United Center in Chicago with a win in spite of it. It took overtime and some dubious officiating in the extra frame to get the result, but the Rangers ensure that they keep a four point lead over the Carolina Hurricanes in the division and will look to make sure it stays that way.
Chicago opened the scoring. Mackenzie Entwistle would get the puck over to Boris Katchouk, before he worked it to Taylor Raddysh. From here, the puck comes loose and is worked over to the left point where Alex Vlasic walks onto one and rips the Blackhawks second shot of the game home past Igor Shesterin. Not a great start to his return, and the Hawks where the team that took the early 1-0 lead in this one.
New York would tie it soon after when the second line went to work. The puck comes back to the point for K'Andre Miller who gives it to Artemi Panarin. The Hart trophy candidate went to work as he started to tear open the Blackhawks defensive structure, and he found a way to get it back into the slot for K'Andre Miller. Miller taps it over to Alexis Lafreniere, and a beautiful Rangers passing play is capped off with a rocket home from the first overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft, and it's a tie game.
A stroke of luck would bless the Rangers a little later when Boris Katchouk lost a skate blade. Isaak Phillips decided to start pushing the stricken forward towards the bench, which is normally the right thing to do. This time, the puck bounced out to an open Adam Fox, and Fox just laid it on a plate for Chris Kreider, and he couldn't miss from less than a foot from the goal line, it just bounces off his blade and into the net for a Ranger lead.
It would be 3-1 New York in the second, as Kaapo Kakko does well to drive into the zone. He fires a shot on goal that Petr Mrazek cannot handle. Will Cuylle driving the net was unable to put the loose change home, but he did manage to knock it over to Jonny Brodzinski as the Minnesotan put the puck home to give the Rangers a multiple goal lead. It wasn't good goaltending, but the third line did well to make the Hawks pay for their mistake.
Chicago would get back into it with less than 7 minutes to go in the game. After the Rangers cannot clear the zone multiple time, Kevin Korchinski gets it to Tyler Johnson who got it across to Philipp Kurashev. His shot would bounce off the pad of Shesterkin to Nick Foligno who would put the puck home to make it a 3-2 game, and suddenly the Rangers had to wake up or they were in danger of not taking the two points.
With 62 seconds to go in the game, the Blackhawks would tie the game. Philipp Kurashev got it back to the point for Seth Jones. Jones lets it fly from the point, and Jason Dickinson deflects it home past Igor Shesterkin as the Rangers were now tied with the last place team in the NHL. At this point, the Blueshirts just needed to find a way to get the two points because winning ugly is better than losing pretty.
In overtime, Chris Kreider carried the puck into the offensive zone and sent it over to Mika Zibanejad. Mika fired the puck off the bar to beat Petr Mrazek and ensure that the Rangers leave the Windy City with two points, despite trying their best to blow it late. A 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks with Zibanejad's 8th career overtime game winning goal. Now, get back home and prepare to face the Calgary Flames.