New York Rangers run Wild in Minnesota with 7-3 blowout
The New York Rangers opened up their first road trip of the year with a bonanza of goals against the Minnesota Wild to spoil their home-opener.
Chris Kreider would bookend the scoring with his first two of the season. Sandwiched in between were goals by Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, Filip Chytil, Vincent Trocheck, and Kaapo Kakko.
All and all, 10 Rangers skaters would pick up points in this game with Panarin leading the way with four (1G – 3A).
Recap: NY Rangers 7 vs Wild 3
1st Period
The Rangers and Wild came out with good pace. Minnesota got the first quality scoring chance of the game as Ryan Hartman shot a great feed from Mats Zuccarello wide of Igor Shesterkin. The Wild kept the pressure up but Zac Jones was able to break up the threat to clear the puck.
Chris Kreider opened the scoring with his first of the season on the power play. After Jacob Middleton was called for a trip on Ryan Carpenter, the Blueshirts top PP unit went to work and executed a perfect tic-tac-toe play. It all started with Artemi Panarin at the point finding Mika Zibanejad down low. He made a brilliant cross-crease pass for a Kreider tap-in past Marc-Andre Fleury just 4:06 into the game.
Minnesota responded with more aggressive shooting from everywhere, but Shesterkin was sharp early stopping all 15 shots he faced in the period.
The Rangers would increase the lead off another beautiful passing play. This time, Panarin threaded the puck to Alexis Lafrenière on the right wing near Fleury’s crease. He then found a sneaking Adam Fox for the goal with 3:57 remaining.
The duo of Laffy and Bread weren’t done either.
With 13 seconds left, Vincent Trocheck dumped the puck deep and Lafrenière picked it up behind the net. He quickly made a behind the back feed to Panarin sliding into the slot for the tally.
“I obviously play with two really good players,” Lafreniere explained. “So try to get open when they have the puck and I try to find them when I have it. Simple.”
2nd Period
The Blueshirts came out in the middle frame with the edge in play and earned an early power play. However, Minnesota was able to kill it and gain momentum.
Former Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello would get the Wild on the board with a power play tally 7:45 in with a rocket over Shesterkin’s shoulder. Zac Jones took the hooking penalty to open the door for Minnesota.
New York then proceeded to get into even more penalty trouble as Adam Fox was called for a questionable trip. On that power play, Joel Ericksson Ek was stoned by Shesterkin. On the follow through, Ek was jamming for a loose puck and Kreider took exception to it by coming up high with his stick for another penalty.
“The best penalty killer has always been our goalie and he stepped up,” Kreider said after the game.
The Blueshirts PK came up big to erase the 2 man advantage and the remainder of Kreider’s penalty.
As the pendulum began to swing back in the Rangers favor, it was the third line that restored the three goal lead. Filip Chytil parked his large frame in front of the net and found Adam Fox’s rebound for his first of the year. Barclay Goodrow notched the other assist with 3:06 left in the period.
3rd Period
I’m not sure what was in the Gatorade bottles to start the final stanza but four goals were scored in just a matter of 2:02.
First, it was Vincent Trocheck getting his first goal as a member of the New York Rangers off a sweet backhand feed from Panarin at the 4:18 mark.
Less than a minute later, Matt Boldy would take advantage of sloppy defense to get that one back. Kaapo Kakko followed that up by putting on a show of force to score a solo beauty 30 seconds later.
Unfortunately, a mistake by Jones at the offensive blue-line led to another Boldy score just 34 seconds after Kakko’s tally.
Things settle down from a goal scoring perspective by the physicality started to ramp up.
K’Andre Miller took a hard hit from Marcus Foligno that left him wobbly and with a cut near his eye. That caught the attention of Blueshirts tough guy Ryan Reaves. A few minutes later, Reaves and Foligno lined up for a draw opting to go.
No contest– a win for Reaves and reminder across the league that there will be no liberties taken on the Rangers without retribution.
Miller got some revenge of his own by recording an assist late in the third. Off a Zibanejad face-off win, Miller made a nice deke by the Wild defender and watched his wrist shot deflected by Kreider in front for his second of the contest.
When it was all said and done, the Rangers had a few sloppy moments in the game yet steamrolled a very good Wild team.
“I feel good– the guys played a real good game tonight,” Gerard Gallant said. “It’s nice to see the scoring spread around our group. Kaapo and Fil scored big goals tonight going to the net. It’s nice to see for our team.”
Notable Rangers
- Igor Shesterkin stopped 33 of 36
- Artemi Panarin picked up a 4 point game
- Alexis Lafrenière notched his first multi-assist game
- Vincent Trocheck recorded his first point and goal as a NYR
- Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil scored their first goals of the year
- Chris Kreider scored twice, including a PP goal
- Adam Fox registered 2 points (1G – 1A)
Tomorrow (Friday, October 14): Gerard Gallant Availability (5:00 PM CT at Canada Life Centre)
Next Game: Friday, October 14 at Winnipeg Jets (7:00 PM CT – TV: MSG Sportsnet)
*Schedule subject to change
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