First Period:
- Ryan Hartman (23) Assists: Kirill Kaprizov (43)
- Joel Eriksson Ek (17) Assists: Marcus Foligno (11), Jordan Greenway (11)
Second Period:
- Dryden Hunt (4) Assists: Artemi Panarin (47), Ryan Strome (28)
- Mika Zibanejad (22) (Shorthanded) Unassisted
- Kevin Fiala (19) (Power Play) Assists: Matt Boldy (12), Marcus Foligno (12)
- Marcus Foligno (19) Assists: Matt Dumba (17), Jonas Brodin (19)
- Kevin Fiala (20) Assists: Mats Zuccarello (40)
Third Period:
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- This one was a stinker.
- There was about a two minute stretch in the second period when, after Zibanejad tied it, it started to feel like this would be one where they found a way, but then Minnesota scored on that PP, scored twice more and never let the Rangers even close.
- Minnesota outplayed the Rangers, flat out. The Rangers were sloppy in all areas, gave Minnesota too much room to skate and at the end of the day they didn’t get the saves. I don’t know if Igor Shesterkin’s presence would have changed anything, but I think everyone would have felt a lot more confident with him in net.
- At some point the Rangers were going to have to give Alex Georgiev a start and after Shesterkin said he was “tired” after the Winnipeg game, this seemed like it was going to be his start. He made a few really excellent saves, especially early and right before Zibanejad’s goal, but he let too many in that he should have stopped. I don’t think the Rangers gave him all that much help, but they haven’t been giving Shesterkin a lot of help for most of the season and it hasn’t seemed to bother him. The Rangers have less than two weeks to make a decision on whether they will look to make a change and bring in someone else to back up Shesterkin. I’m not sure that they will, but I can’t imagine anyone in the organization has faith in Georgiev at this point.
- A game like tonight, where they didn’t have one, shows just how much the Rangers rely on their PP. One way that they can both make sure they get PP opportunities and lessen the workload on the goalies: have the puck more. That has been an issue all season and against good teams, like Minnesota, like that game against Pittsburgh, they need to do more than just try and score off the rush. They need to go to the net, sustain offensive pressure and force teams to put them on the PP.
- Thursday against St. Louis is almost the exact same set up as tonight. The Blues are on a losing streak, just like Minnesota was, the playoff race is tightening around them and they will be looking to get back on track. It’s another good test for the Rangers and they will face a lot more games like this down the stretch. Dallas on Saturday will be the same, Anaheim, on Tuesday, is around the playoff race, the Islanders, on Thursday, would love nothing more than to mess with the Rangers and then there is a brutal back-to-back that sees them go to Tampa and then Carolina. The Rangers need more games like these to get ready for the playoffs and playoff style and they are going to get them. How will they respond to those games? We will see.