First Period:
- Erik Gustafsson (5) Assists: Kaapo Kakko (4), Jonny Brodzinski (11)
- Brock Nelson (23) Assists: Scott Mayfield (5), Cal Clutterbuck (11)
- Bo Horvat (22) Assists: Noah Dobson (49), Adam Pelech (6)
- Mathew Barzal (16) (Power Play) Assists: Brock Nelson (20), Noah Dobson (50)
Second Period:
- Anders Lee (14) (Power Play) Assists: Pierre Engvall (11), Mike Reilly (9)
- Vincent Trocheck (17) (Power Play) Assists: Artemi Panarin (41), Adam Fox (36)
- Vincent Trocheck (18) Assists: Alexis Lafreniere (18), Ryan Lindgren (8)
Third Period:
- Alexander Romanov (6) Assists: Noah Dobson (51)
- Chris Kreider (28) (Power Play) Assists: Artemi Panarin (42), Vincent Trocheck (33)
- Mika Zibanejad (18) (Power Play) Assists: Adam Fox (37), Alexis Lafreniere (19)
Overtime:
- Artemi Panarin (32) Unassisted
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- For around 55 or so minutes this was a pretty disappointing game from the Rangers….and then the PP came through and they managed to find a way to win.
- For a lot of this game it felt like it was straight out of late December and January. The goaltending was shaky, they gave up goals in quick succession, they took penalties to negate powerplays, the PP wasn’t coming through in big moments, they looked slow and were going to lose.
- But as the game went on the Rangers started to find their urgency. They started to play faster, started to win battles and they just kept coming. It was pretty deflating when the Islanders got a huge break on their fifth goal with Ryan Lindgren getting whacked in the face and then run into the boards and then the puck bouncing right to Lindgren’s man for the goal, but they kept pushing. As they started to pressure more they started to put the Isles on their heels and drew those two penalties. It probably helped the Rangers that the Islanders have spent basically the whole season blowing leads and then games.
- They were aggressive in pulling the goalie on the PP and they had the puck for basically the entire time, but Ilya Sorokin was making some saves and the story of the game seemed like it might be how the Rangers PP couldn’t come through against the worst PK in the league. But Chris Kreider did his thing to get within one, they drew another penalty and Alexis Lafreniere made a terrific pass to find Mika Zibanejad for the tying goal. Ultimately the big guys and the PP came through to steal a point.
- Artemi Panarin put the nail in the coffin 10 seconds in to steal the second point and keep the Rangers undefeated in outdoor games.
- They found a way to win another game where they were the second-best team for a lot of it. They found a way to outscore some of their shaky goaltending and shaky play and won. This has been a pattern and similar in some ways to what we saw on Thursday against Montreal.
- He wasn’t great in the first period, most of the team wasn’t, but Igor Shesterkin did make a number of saves after the Islanders went up 4-1. I did wonder for a bit if Igor was going to get pulled, but Peter Laviolette stuck with him and it paid off.
- It’s a hard game to wrap your head around and certainly brought along many mood changes. The Islanders certainly played their part in giving this game to the Rangers, but ultimately the Rangers big players came through on what had been a brutal, struggling and frustrating PP recently.
- Much like the past couple of years, the Rangers have enough offensive talent and the PP to come back from any deficit. It’s usually not pretty getting to that point, but they find ways to win. You’d still prefer them to play and win games like they did earlier in the season and the first few game after the break where they grab a lead and play defense, but they can play and win all sorts of different games and they did it again today.
- Tuesday against Dallas, a Western Conference team and a game with little buzz after all the hoopla of today, definitely could be a letdown game.