ADAM FOX RETURNS TO LINEUP
ADAM FOX RETURNS TO LINEUP
Rangers 3rd Period Comeback Beats Detroit
© Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports, Adam Fox carrying the puck in a previous game.
NEW YORK—Adam Fox made his first start in the last 10 games, as he came off the Injured Reserved list, but it was Jimmy Vesey who was the hero of this game knocking a puck out of mid-air to give the Rangers the 3-2 lead late in the 3rd period.
The Rangers were home against Original Six rival Detroit Red Wings, after losing to the Buffalo Sabres in a let down game on Monday night. The Rangers have not lost back-to-back games at all this season, and they were not about to start that trend tonight.
1st Period Summary
So far this season, the Rangers have responded well after losses and they certainly wanted to give the Garden crowd something to cheer about. With only two minutes into the period, David Perron was called for a hooking penalty giving the Rangers the early power play opportunity.
This gave Adam Fox his first opportunity to get back out with the first power play unit and immediately you could tell the Rangers might find that magic formula on the man-advantage. Although the Rangers did not score, they were able to generate multiple shots on net and Chris Kreider narrowly missed scoring a goal, as the puck deflected off his stick, but went just wide of the right post.
When the teams went returned to even strength, the game began to open up with both teams skating back and forth in a fast paced style of play. Through the first 10 minutes, the Rangers were able to outshoot the Red Wings 6-2.
Then with 9:02 left on the clock, Olli Maatta hooked Vincent Trocheck, giving New York their 2nd power play chance of the game. But the early story of this game was the outstanding goaltending by Ville Husso for Detroit, who made a total of 38 saves in the loss.
The first power play unit wasn’t able to score, so when the second unit went out on the ice during the second power play, Trocheck was able to get two consecutive shots off near the side of the net. But Husso was right there making two fabulous pad saves and denying New York.
Then with only 5:04 left, Jimmy Vesey was called for a tripping penalty and that gave the Red Wings their first power play of the game. But the Rangers penalty killers were up to the task and were able to kill off the minor penalty.
End of 1st Period: Rangers 0, Red Wings 0
2nd Period Summary
Early in the period, Shayne Gostisbehere was able to take a hard shot on goal, but Shesterkin kicked out his pad to make the save. And then for the next several minutes, the game play tightened up considerably.
Not until 15:22 to go, did Artemi Panarin put in his 12th goal of the season from Alexis Lafreniere and K’Andre Miller. As Miller had the puck, he then passed it over to Lafreniere who came streaking down the boards and then he found Panarin wide open for the shot that beat Husso for the 1-0 lead.
Then on Panarin’s next shift after the goal, he got called for roughing penalty for hitting Joe Veleno in the face with this gloves while along the boards in the offensive zone with 13:04 in the game.
This time it didn’t very take long for Detroit to tie the game up. Moritz Seider scored his 3rd of the season on the power play from Andrew Copp and Ryan Fabri. As the puck came back to Seider at the blue line, he skated toward over to center point area and then let a rocket go toward Sheseterkin. Copp had stationed himself right in front of Shesterkin, which blocked Igor’s view, as well as a few other players who were also screening the goaltender.
With the game tied at 1-1, Detroit began to pressure the puck and then 23 second laters, the Rangers gave up a second goal. This time, the Rangers turned the puck over at the boards inside their own zone. The Rangers tried to poke check the puck away, but then the loose puck squirted free right into the center slot area where Fabri picked it up and fired a hard shot immediately on net. The high rising shot beat Shesterkin to the blocker side to give the Red Wings the 2-1 lead.
Then the Rangers would their own good scoring chance with 10:20 left, as Lafreniere tipped the puck on net, but it slid just wide right of the post. It seemed the game was starting to get away from Detroit, so Husso began holding the puck for more face-offs after that shot.
Only about a minute later, Trocheck ended up colliding with Raymond inside the offensive zone and was called for a tripping penalty with 9:26 on the clock. But as soon as the whistle blew, JT Compher decided to go over to Trocheck and challenge him. That meant, Trocheck ended up getting 2 minutes for tripping and 2 minutes for roughing and Compher received 2 minutes for roughing.
The Rangers penalty killers were able to defend the 2nd power play chance for Detroit before the end of the period. As the buzzer sounded, the Rangers were outshooting the Red Wings 22-16.
End of 2nd Period: Rangers 1, Red Wings 2
3rd Period Summary
It’s been unusual for the Rangers to trail going into the third period, but it seemed the momentum was starting to trend in the Rangers favor.
But with just fifteen seconds into the final period, Igor Shesterkin needed to make the save of the game, as he stopped a hard shot off of JT Compher’s stick, as he took a pass from Lucas Raymond.
Then with 17:45 left in the game, Gostisbehere got crushed into the boards by Will Cuylle, who was finishing a check on the defenseman. But Gostisbehere was caught in a vulnerable position, so his head slammed against the boards. Gostisbehere would leave the game for concussion protocol. And Cuylle was given a boarding penalty, but as soon as the whistle blew, the Red Wings Klim Kostin jumped on top of Cuylle and was also given 2 minutes for roughing.
The Kostin penalty negated the power play chance for Detroit, which meant the two teams would skated four aside.
Then the Rangers started to dominate the puck possession time in the 3rd period and started to take more and more shot on net. New York had 19 shots in the 3rd for a game total of 41 shots on net.
With 15:50 left in the game, Shesterkin needed to make another kick save off a difficult shot from Raymond once again.
And then one of the most unusual plays in the NHL occurred. With just 14:27 left on the clock, Cuylle was stick checking Raymond as he was trying to clear the zone. But as Cuylle poke checked Raymond’s stick, Raymond reached down and grabbed Cuylle’s stick with his glove. As Raymond went to release Cuylle’s stick he jerked his hand up and hit himself in the face with the stick blade.
Initially there was no call on the play and the referees didn’t even blow the whistle as Raymond grabbed at his mouth. So then the referees decided to blow the play dead and then they checked on Raymond, who was bleeding from the mouth. Even though the referees didn’t see a penalty, they decided to give Cuylle a double-minor for high sticking.
But then the referees decided to review the penalty call. And upon review, it was clear to see that Raymond reached down and grabbed Cuylle’s stick and that’s what caused the stick blade to cut Raymond’s mouth.
So the referees canceled the penalty.
Now with just over 10 minutes left in the game, Mika Zibanejad decided to be very patient with the puck inside the offensive zone. As he controlled the puck down low on the left side of the net, he surveyed the ice.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see K’Andre Miller getting open, as he moved down from the point into the slot area. So Zibanejad hit him with a tape-to-tape pass and Miller fired a one-time laser on net, which beat Husso to between the arm and pad to tie the game up at 2-2.
Then just a couple minutes later, Zibanejad got a second scoring chance, this time he took a sniper shot from over at the right slot area, but Husso was able to get over to make the save and held on to the puck, in order to slow the game down.
With the face-off deep in the Detroit zone, the Red Wings were able to break out with the puck and skate up ice. Once inside the Rangers zone, Raymond had one of his best scoring chances of the game, but Shesterkin was there once again to shut the door. This time, Shesterkin had to extend his pad to make an incredible kick save from the right side of the net.
Then with 6:31 on the clock, Lafreniere was called for a holding penalty in the offensive zone, giving Detroit their 4th power play of the game. Now was crunch time for the Rangers who needed to kill off another penalty. This time on the power play, Detroit was able to set up, but they were not able to get too many pucks toward the net, as the blueshirts continued to block more shots. The Rangers finished the game with 15 more blocked shot.
Just as the penalty expired and Lafreniere came out of the penalty box, the Rangers were able to push the puck up the ice. Instead of making a line change, both Lafreniere and Jimmy Vesey stayed on the ice. That decision turned out to be a good one, as the Rangers scored again to take a 3-2 lead.
As Lafreniere came out of the penalty box, the puck went into the Detroit zone and he was able to find the loose puck and take one shot on Husso, which he saved, but left a rebound out in front. Vesey decided to crash the net and found the loose puck in front and took a second shot, which Husso blocked with his stick. But this time the puck deflected up into the air and before anyone could touch it, Vesey lifted his stick up and battled the puck right out of mid-air.
It appeared the puck was below the cross-bar, but the referees decided to review the goal call and then determined after the review that the puck was under the cross bar. It was Vesey’s 5th of the season and gave the Rangers a late 3-2 lead.
As the game was winding down, Trocheck took another tripping penalty against Daniel Sprong this time with only 1:56 left in the game. So Detroit got one final chance to try and tie the game up with the late man-advantage.
With Trocheck in the penalty box, Head Coach Peter Laviolette decided to rely on Nick Bonino to take the defensive zone face-offs. And Bonino won the draw deep in the Rangers end, except Detroit was able to takeaway the puck away and pass the puck to Seider at the point who took a shot on net that Shesterkin saved.
Then with only 1:16 to go, Detroit decided to pull Husso for the extra skater and a 6 on 4 man advantage. But the Rangers were able to keep the Red Wings toward the perimeter and Trouba blocked a pass that was meant to go cross-ice and then with only 10 seconds left, Trouba blocked a shot from Alex DeBrincat.
At that point, Detroit decided to call its time out. There was only 6.6 seconds left on the clock with a face-off deep in the Rangers zone. And once again, Coach Laviolette sent Bonino out to take the face-off draw. Once again Bonino won the draw.
With time running out, Seider decided to take a shot from the point, which Barclay Goodrow blocked as time expired.
Final Score: Rangers 3, Red Wings 2
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Season Analysis:
The Rangers were 9-3 in the month of November giving them a total of 33 points for the season and places them first in the Eastern Conference ahead of Boston by 2 points.
Looking ahead, the Rangers have a busy month of December with 16 games on the schedule. The blueshirts next game is on Saturday afternoon on the road in Nashville against the 11-10 Predators. And then they play again late Sunday afternoon at home against the San Jose Sharks (5-15-2).
This will be the first of four back to back games this month. Which means, the Rangers depth will be tested through the end of the year.
Hopefully with Adam Fox back in the lineup, it only means good things for the Rangers offense and also the power play, which has struggled of late.