VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Rangers proceed to flex their power on the highway this season.
Coming off a particularly humdrum and low-event matchup in Seattle, the Rangers have been entrenched in an abundance of motion Tuesday night time in an evenly matched contest in opposition to the Canucks that noticed the guests energy by way of to a 4-3 victory.
It was an brisk sport, that includes some entertaining hockey, and the Blueshirts got here out on the successful finish to enhance their away file to 7-1-0.
“I thought as a team, we played really well,” Will Cuylle stated after notching his fourth multipoint sport of the season with a aim and an help, which tied the 22-year-old with Artemi Panarin for probably the most five-on-five factors on the crew. “The game was close, but I thought for the majority of the game we were controlling the play, were getting lots of chances, couple bounces here and there.”
After the 2 groups continued buying and selling off targets within the center body to hold a 3-3 rating into the third interval, the Rangers broke it open on the 10:43 mark on a aim from Chris Kreider.
The chemistry between Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith has steadily come alongside, with this game-winning play serving as the newest instance.
Zibanejad fed Smith within the excessive slot earlier than the latter teed up Kreider for a short-side shot on Canucks goalie Arturs Silovs.
Regardless of the win, the Rangers have damaged down manner too early plenty of instances within the final three and a half weeks, over which they’ve given up a aim inside the first minute of the sport 4 instances by way of 11 video games.
Tuesday night time was the newest, with Canucks captain Quinn Hughes crashing the center of the ice and flipping a backhander previous Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin simply 34 seconds after the puck was dropped.
Zibanejad, nonetheless, had some soar in his sport early on to fight Vancouver’s fast rating.
“In a game like this one, the speed, the attack, especially for a guy like Mika with the puck on his stick, he’s a dangerous player,” head coach Peter Laviolette stated. “When he assaults with that pace, attacking the online, attacking the offensive zone, to me, not solely does he grow to be harmful, however different gamers on his line grow to be harmful. The defensemen which might be including to the frenzy grow to be harmful.
“He can push defenses back on his attack into the offensive and then either deliver pucks or look for something. He was good. The line was good.”
Getting a stick on a shot from Ok’Andre Miller, Zibanejad scored his third five-on-five aim of the season earlier than ending with two factors on the night time.
The Swedish middle was all around the ice Tuesday, particularly all through the opening 20 minutes, organising his linemates and pushing the tempo each time the puck was on his stick.
The Rangers had a number of open ice on this one, they usually used it to their full benefit.
Connecting on cross-ice passes and getting artistic in transition, the Rangers constantly threatened on offense.
“We want to be showing our skill and utilizing that [open space],” stated Adam Fox, who completed with two assists and two blocked pictures within the win. “We’re making an attempt to make use of that, but additionally take away some threat that the puck could be going the opposite manner. It’s onerous to cease when there’s motion within the O-zone and also you’re going cross-seam, these are the toughest to cease.
“I think we want to get a good mix of that and a good mix of simplicity. Some of our goals were just D to D, shot, tip or a rebound goal. You want to have a nice mix of both, for sure.”
