First Period:
- Filip Chytil (22) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere (20), K’Andre Miller (31)
- Vladimir Tarasenko (16) Assists: Braden Schneider (12), Ben Harpur (5)
- Patrick Kane (21) Assists: Vincent Trocheck (39), Chris Kreider (18)
- Kirill Marchenko (20) (Power Play) Assists: Jack Roslovic (33), Johnny Gaudreau (50)
- Johnny Gaudreau (19) Assists: Boone Jenner (19), Jake Christiansen (3)
Second Period:
- Artemi Panarin (25) (Power Play) Assists: Adam Fox (55), Mika Zibanejad (43)
Third Period:
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- Mika Zibanejad (38) Assists: Artemi Panarin (59)
- Vincent Trocheck (20) (Empty Net) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere (21)
Three Stars:
- 3: Mika Zibanejad
- 2: Artemi Panarin
- 1: Igor Shesterkin
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- This was sort of the game that I expected tonight, with the Rangers jumping out to a big lead early, being lax in their own zone, letting Columbus back in, but ultimately coming away with the win.
- This win though belongs to Igor Shesterkin. He was terrific with a few saves in the first minutes and then made big saves throughout to keep the Rangers in the lead. I’d love to see the Rangers tighten up and play better in front of Shesterkin, but he looks dialed in and that is probably the best sign for the Rangers.
- They got scoring from a bunch of guys and the PP scored and offensively they did their job, but they will need to be better defensively on Thursday. That or it will be an 8-7 game.
- Ultimately, what matters is they won and that if they beat the Devils in regulation on Thursday then they will take second place via the regulation wins tiebreaker.
- The team that has scored first has lost in all three of the prior Ranger/Devil games. The Rangers blew a two goal lead and lost 5-3 in the first game, they came from down two goals to beat the Devils in OT and then the Devils did the same to the Rangers. We’ll see how Thursday shakes out with home ice on the line.