The Rangers come back in a big way on the road to record their fourth-straight win of the season.
After notching an impressive win against the Nashville Predators on Thursday, the New York Rangers headed back to Canada to take on the Ottawa Senators for their first matinee game of the season.
The Senators have looked surprisingly good to begin the 2021-22 season and they have their best player, Brady Tkachuk, back, but this should’ve been the Rangers’ fourth-straight win.
Goaltender Igor Shesterkin has been red-hot to start the season, but head coach Gerard Gallant saw this game as an opportunity to rest him and give Alexandar Georgiev his second start of the season.
Georgiev’s job would be a little easier this time around, but the Rangers were going to need him to be much better than he was in the season-opener against the Washington Capitals.
1st period: So you’re telling me Adam Fox ISN’T perfect?
A rare but big mistake by Adam Fox (yes, you read that correctly) in the neutral zone just seconds into the game allowed the Senators to take a 1-0 lead that they would carry into the second period.
Georgiev looked good, making some crucial saves throughout the first. The second line carried their great play from the last game into this one, having the team’s best scoring chances of the period. The penalty kill, which we saw twice, also did well.
However, other than that, the Rangers didn’t look great, especially offensively. They didn’t get much of anything done at even-strength and the power play continues to struggle mightily.
2nd period: Is Matt Murray even playing?
The second period was even worse for the Rangers. They didn’t concede a goal, but the offense was as dry as it gets, managing just four shots on goal. The final two minutes of the period were the most eventful for the Rangers.
Georgiev, who had actually been really good in net, came up with a huge save to keep it a one-goal game. Shortly after, the Rangers were back on the penalty kill, and that’s when they had their best scoring chance of the game.
Mika Zibanejad made a beautiful pass in front of the Senators’ net to Jacob Trouba, but Ottawa goalie Matt Murray made a great save on Trouba’s shot.
3rd period: All about the momentum
The Rangers gave up another ugly, early goal to start the period. Artemiy Panarin turned over the puck, Patrik Nemeth made a subsequent poor defensive effort, and Josh Norris got one past Georgiev that the Rangers goalie probably wants back.
Down 2-0, Chris Kreider had a great scoring chance in front of Ottawa’s net, but Murray made another great save to keep the shutout in tact. During that play, Filip Chytil went down and was then taken to the locker room.
Fortunately, he was able to return not long after, but he did look like he was in some pain.
Power play Kreider made an appearance again to get the Rangers on the board. Ottawa’s Parker Kelly committed a bad hooking penalty on K’Andre Miller, sending the Rangers to the power play.
He didn’t get an assist, but Fox made a fantastic spin-o-rama play to maintain possession, eventually resulting in yet another Kreider-in-front-of-the-net-power-play-goal.
Unfortunately, Murray was injured on the play and exited to the locker room to be replaced by Anton Forsberg.
Not two minutes later, on a four-on-four, a beautiful assist by Fox to his linemate, Ryan Lindgren, in front of the net allowed Lindgren to tie the game with his first goal of the season.
And then two minutes after that, the luckiest deflection by Barclay Goodrow gave the Rangers their first lead of the game, one from which they didn’t look back.
This effort wasn’t pretty and the Rangers can’t make games like this a habit, but the team’s fight and resilience was on full display here and it was nice to see the Rangers get a power play goal to kick things off.
That’s four-straight wins for the Blueshirts on this historic road trip.
Key Moment: Rare but beautiful power play goal
The key moment of the game was definitely Kreider’s power play goal that got the Rangers on the board. It put an end to the shutout and allowed the team to gain momentum.
The Rangers have been struggling mightily on the power play, so it was good to see them notch a goal on the man-advantage.
Player of the game: Chris Kreider
Kreider was everywhere in this game, especially once the Rangers began scoring. He kicked things off with his power play goal while recording an assist on the second goal, as well. Kreider continues to have an incredibly impressive start to the season.
