While New York City faces the blizzard, so do the Rangers.
On the same night that the team’s leadership had to make the decision to separate from the second highest-paid defender on the team, Tony DeAngelo, Rangers achieved their third victory of the season behind a powerful third-goal goal from Chris Kreider to defeat the Penguins 3-1 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Rangers had scored just two goals in the third period and had not registered any in the last five games they played on Monday. Kreider broke that streak at 11:10 in the final frame with a redirect of an Adam Fox no-look shot at the top of the zone.
Artemi Panarin scored well with a second left on the clock, as well as two assists, to complete a three-point display. While Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin took his second win of the season, deflecting 25 of the 26 shots he faced, including nine saves in the last 20 minutes to secure the victory.
General manager Jeff Gorton said before the game that the team’s focus had to be on winning, and Rangers went out and took down a team of the Penguins they had lost to in their previous three games against them.
“I just can’t say how proud I am of our group,” said coach David Quinn after the victory. “It’s been very difficult 24, 36 hours and the way we play together.”
In addition to being without DeAngelo, the Rangers lost Kaapo Kakko to the COVID-19 Protocol list and called AHL Hartford’s Jonny Brodzinski for their first game in a Rangers uniform. Anthony Bitetto, who was on the team’s taxi team at the start of the season, also replaced DeAngelo in his debut for Rangers.
To add more pressure to the already exhausted Rangers team, defender Brendan Smith collided with Brandon Tanev at 5:12 pm from the first and went straight to the locker room, where he remained with an upper body injury.
The Rangers were forced to roll with five defenders for the rest of the night.
Whether for the collective inexperience of the lineup or the incredible strength of the Penguins in controlling the puck, the Rangers suffered a series of penalties throughout the game. They started the second and third periods in the death penalty as a result of infractions in the final two minutes of each frame.
Julian Gauthier, who has not played since January 19 against Devils, was called up to hold out minutes after Rangers opened the 2-1 lead to force him to compete with a shorthand for the sixth time in the game. However, the Rangers ‘penalty-death unit was their strongest component and prevented all six Penguins’ male advantage opportunities.
Rangers have had one of their third most competitive spells so far this season, blocking seven shots and refusing to give the Penguins any time or space.
“The way we played in that third period was very good for us, just moving forward and understanding that we can win these games,” said Fox. “We have to play in a certain way to do that.”
The Penguins came out of the first period with the lead for the third time in the last four games against Rangers. Jason Zucker quickly took the disc off the boards and took Shesterkin well away from the crease, fitting him in for the 1-0 score at 9:05.
But Rangers took advantage of a late penalty kick from the Penguins with an extra ice skater late in the second, with Kevin Rooney scoring his second goal in so many games to draw.
“Listen, I know what our album is, we feel really good about a lot of things we’ve done this year – I know it may sound crazy, but we really do,” said Quinn. “We just need to keep moving forward and continue to build. We got five of our last six points and we’re wasting time. “