Oct 17, 2022; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck (16) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Anaheim Ducks during the first period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports
NHL: Anaheim Ducks at New York Rangers
After going 1-1 on their first road trip of the year, the New York Rangers came home and burried the Anaheim Ducks, with a 6-4 victory on Monday night.
Mika Zibanejad was the hero once again, contributing two goals and two assists on the night. Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox both recorded 3 assists along with a goal from Panarin. Zibanejad is now tied for the league lead with 4 goals and Panarin is the assist king thus far with 8 apples. Vincent Trochek, Kaapo Kakko, and Alexis Lafrenière also scored on the night. Igor Sheshterkin improved to 3-0 on his 2022 with 18 saves on the night.
New York jumped to a 2-0 lead early in the contest thanks to special teams; shocker. Two power-play goals scored 6 minutes apart in the middle of the first period put the Rangers ahead, but they say that 2-0 is the worse lead in sports. They got complacent and blew that lead thanks to the Ducks’ rising star, Trevor Zegras, and former Ranger Frank Vatrano. It was a brief scare at the Garden as Zegras and Vatrano fired two snipes past Sheshterkin with one going top-shelf and the other going 5-hole. After Kakko scored with 2:21 left, the Rangers never looked back.
“We definitely have good power play chemistry,” Panarin said in the locker room after the game, who led the Rangers with 96 points last year. “We just need to focus more on the goal itself, on scoring goals, and we’ll get better from there.”
Gerard Gallant’s team scored three unanswered goals in the second period and improve to a 6-0-1 record against the Ducks since 2018 with 12 wins in 15 games since 2014. They had half as many turnovers as the Ducks did, nearly had double the amount of shots compared to Anaheim (43-22), and they went 3-4 on the Power Play. The Rangers went 1-1 in their first road trip as they beat the Minnesota Wild 7-3 before falling to the Winnipeg Jets 4-1. This team looks like an offensive juggernaut and its only been 4 games. With 48 points, the Rangers lead the NHL.
The Blue Shirts welcome another western conference foe, the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
