One More Point
Delaying the Outcome As Much as Possible
Photo: The Eastern Conference Standings are as close as they can be with less than two weeks left in the 2025 season. ©2025 NHL Logos
ANAHEIM, CA—The New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks faced off on Friday night to determine if the blueshirts could jump back into the last wildcard spot or not? But in typical 2025 fashion, the Rangers allowed the Ducks to claw back into the game late in the third period.
This season is literally going to come down to the last few games.
GAME NOTES
The Anaheim Ducks are out of the playoff chase in the Western Conference, which means the rest of their season is all about growth and development. Meanwhile, the Rangers are very much in the hunt and every point counts.
So when Adam Fox scored his 7th goal of the year, when he top shelfed a shot just underneath the crossbar, after Artemi Panarin’s shot was saved by Lukas Dostal, it looked like the blueshirts might play like a playoff contender for once.
But not so fast.
Despite the Ducks not having anything meaningful to play for—the truth is they never gave up in this game.
With 16:55 expired in the period, NHL veteran and former Stanley Cup winner, Alex Killorn scored his 18th of the season shorthanded to tie the game back up 1-1. And at that point it seemed like this game was going to be a dog fight for New York.
Luckily for the blueshirts, as the first period was winding down, JT Miller was able to tally his 19th of the year on a backhand shot from Will Cuylle, which gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead going into the second period.
Then with only 14 seconds off the clock, Alexis Lafreniere knocked in his 16th goal of the year to give the Ranges a two goal lead. And at that point, it finally looked like the Rangers had held off the Ducks attack and were going to secure the much needed two points in the standings.
At this point in the game, the Rangers had taken 22 shots on net compared to the Ducks 27 shots through two periods of play.
But little did we know this game was far from over.
Four total goals would be scored in the third period. The first goal came from, Leo Carlsson, the young centerman for the Ducks, who scored his 19th goal of the year, which cut the Rangers lead to one goal with only 2:22 expired on the clock.
Then at 4:05 of the third period, Ducks forward Ryan Strome got called for a 2 minute slashing penalty against Braden Schneider. That gave the Rangers their third power play chance in the game and thirty seconds later, Mika Zibanejad capitalized on the power play with a one-timer from Adam Fox and Panarin.
Zibanejad’s goal put the Rangers back in the driver’s seat with more than 15 minutes left to play in regulation. But New York was never able to hit the kill switch in this game.
Anaheim ended up taking five penalties in the final period, including giving the Rangers a 5-3 man advantage for over a minute of play. Except the Rangers only scored on one of the seven total power plays in the game.
All the Rangers needed to do was play solid defense down the stretch and they would leap frog into the final playoff spot. Unfortunately, with less than six minutes to play in regulation, Cutter Gauthier scored his 15th of the season to cut the Rangers lead back to 4-3.
And then with only 1:45 left in the game, Olen Zellweger tied the game at 4-4.
Igor Shesterkin ended up saving 28 of 33 total shots in the game, but the four goals weren’t entirely his fault. Truth is the Rangers hung Igor out to dry on most of those goals, including in overtime.
So when the overtime period started, the only time the Rangers touched the puck was when Vincent Trocheck lost the opening faceoff. This is probably why the Rangers are 2-8 in overtime periods.
Regardless, with only 59 seconds gone off the clock in the extrended session, Mason McTavish scored his 20th of the season from Jackson LaCombe to beat Shesterkin and the Rangers by a final 5-4.
GAME ANALYSIS
This is starting to become a theme with the 2025 Rangers. What the heck happened in this game?
Truth is the Rangers were up 3-1 going into the third period. That meant, all the needed to do was play solid team defense. And with a goaltender like Shesterkin in net, all New York has to do is limit the number of shots on net and let Igor do the rest.
But that’s not what happened at all.
How could New York allow the Ducks to score three goals in the third period? It’s kind of mind boggling when you think about it. But this is the big problem with this year’s team, they simply don’t know how to play with a lead.
What New York needs to practice is how to maintain possession of the puck, which brings us back to the giveaway problem again. In last night’s game, New York gave the puck away 17 more times again. That’s simply too many turnovers, if you want to win games.
Only a few times throughout the game, did the Rangers enter the offensive zone and use the cycle to maintain offensive zone pressure. But when I say only a few times, I literally mean two or three shifts.
That’s simply not enough.
What the Rangers need to do is sustain pressure for several minutes in a row to wear down their opponents. If they could do this in the first and second periods, then they would see much less comeback wins against them.
But that didn’t happen last night.
So what now?
Here’s how the standings look for the Eastern Conference, as of March 29th.
Photo: Screenshot from ESPN ©2025
GAME STATS
JT Miller 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 shot, 2 hits
Alexis Lafreniere 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 shots, 1 block
Adam Fox 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 shots, 2 blocks, 1 hit
NEXT GAME
There are only 10 games left in the New York Rangers 2025 season. If the rest of the Eastern Conference wasn’t also in a slump, the blueshirts would have been eliminated from the playoff chase sometime last week.
But by some miracle, Montreal, Ottawa, the Islanders and Red Wings all seem to be losing just as much as the Rangers.
This means the last two wildcard spots are still up for grabs, but time is running out.
The Rangers play one more back to back game against the San Jose Sharks tonight on the road. San Jose has 49 points on the season, which is by far the worst record in the NHL. This means there is no excuse for the Rangers to lose this game.
But who knows? New York should not have lost last night and yet they did in overtime.
The Rangers need to play with more offensive zone pressure, they need to take more shots on net and they need to score more on the power play. If they can do all of those things, they should be able to secure two more points and put a lot of pressure on the other teams chasing for the same wildcard spots.
Can the Rangers get their act together tonight? Or Will San Jose spoil the party for the 2025 New York team?
Stay tuned to find out…