Rangers Weather The Hurricanes With 6-3 Win

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Here is our recap of the Rangers 6-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Mats Zuccarello – The Rangers winger had a huge impact on this game, scoring the opening goal and the insurance goal to give the Rangers their 31st win of the season. On the opening goal, Zuccarello benefited from a purposely wide shot from Neal Pionk and put the caromed puck over top of Scott Darling.

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With the Rangers up 4-3, Carolina pulled their goaltender with just under three minutes to go in the third period. Zuccarello took the puck, after a defensive play by Ryan Spooner, and fired it into the net from inside his own blue line for his 14th of the season.

Zuccarello’s two tallies were the 99th and 100th of his NHL career, all of which have been spent with the Blueshirts. Zuccarello plays a big man’s game, despite being “vertically-challenged,” and is the perfect player to lead this team in their rebuild.

Pavel Buchnevich – After a twitter kerfuffle started mid-game when Buchnevich was called “lazy,” the young Russian shut down his critics with his performance in this one. Buchnevich recorded three assists, all of which were primary helpers, to help the Rangers on their road to victory in this one. As long as he can stay healthy, Buchnevich will be an important building block for the Blueshirts.

Vladislav Namestnikov – Since being acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning at the deadline, the young Russian forward has been a really solid player for the Rangers. He got his second goal with the Blueshirts in this one, redirecting Buchnevich’s point shot past Darling with the Rangers on the power play. Namestnikov is a restricted free-agent at season’s end, and his ability to play both center and wing will make him valuable to this organization going forward.

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Jimmy Vesey – He’s been one of the hardest working players on the team, but it hasn’t translated into a lot of pucks finding the back of the net. But in this one, Jimmy Vesey’s hard work paid off, earning his first NHL hat trick against the Hurricanes. Vesey’s first tally came off of a nifty faceoff win by Buchnevich, going forward and quickly sending the puck across the slot to Vesey, who corralled the puck and put it into the net.

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For an encore, Vesey made a defensive play in the neutral zone, chased down the puck that was pushed forward by Buchnevich, and made a perfect bardown shot to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead.

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Vesey finished off his hatty by taking a Jesper Fast pass and firing a laser into the Carolina net from about 175 feet away. Vesey scored his 13th, 14th and 15th goals of the season against the ‘Canes and if he can start producing more as his ice time increases, he will show his worth to team management.

Young Defense – The group of young Rangers defensemen has been impressive since being called into action over the last month. Aside from Marc Staal, the rest of the blue line of this game was all 24-years-old or younger. Though it has been a really small sample size, John Gilmour and Neal Pionk look like they will be solid NHL defensemen for years to come.

Tony DeAngelo was unable to finish the game after heading skate first into the boards. DeAngelo has been solid on the blue line in Kevin Shattenkirk’s absence as the lone right-handed shot on the point. He has started playing with more confidence and authority in his game, but now he will have to put that on hold as he heads for medical testing on his ankle.

Alexandar Georgiev – It is no secret that the Rangers have a top goaltending prospect in Russia named Igor Shestyorkin. However, don’t overlook the Russian goalie currently on the squad in Alexandar Georgiev. The baby-faced 22-year-old made 41 saves on 44 Carolina shots, including these two saves on young Finnish phenom Sebastian Aho in the third period.

Georgiev has given up just 12 goals on 172 shots, which gives him a .930 SV% and a 2.73 GAA in the five games he has played. And with veteran backup Ondrej Pavelec being an unrestricted free-agent this summer, Georgiev certainly looks like he could be Henrik Lundqvist’s understudy for the 2018-19 season.

Next Game: The Blueshirts will look to make it two wins in a row when they welcome the Penguins to The Garden on Wednesday. Puck drops at 8!

LETS GO RANGERS!!

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