rangers canucks

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

J.T. Miller continued his strong play this season with the overtime winner, beating the Ryan Millers Vancouver Canucks with a dramatic 3-2 win. The Rangers dominated this game from start to finish, but found themselves trailing 2-1 in the third period due to poor luck –I counted 71 posts hit– and amazing goaltending from Ryan Miller, who made 46 saves in the contest.

But it was Mats Zuccarello who tied the game in the third period off a brilliant Keith Yandle pass to guarantee the Rangers get a point. Henrik Lundqvist only faced 20 shots, but did have to make some difficult saves to ensure this game was within reach.

This is another game where the Rangers had to erase a third period deficit. It’s good to know that they are able to reach down and come back like this. But this game was very close to being a maddening loss.

As always, you can view the full videos on our video page here. All GIFs are on nyrgifs.comfiltered under the date of the game. On to the goals:

Canucks 1, Rangers 0

baertschi goal

Rick Nash coughed up the puck in the offensive zone, leading to a transition for the Canucks. Bo Horvat just blew by Dan Boyle wide and behind the net, hitting Sven Baertschi in front, who was ahead of the back checkers.

Rangers 1, Canucks 1

While on a delayed penalty advantage, the Rangers moved the puck very well across the zone. Eventually the puck got to the front of the net, where Derek Stepan was able to bang it home. It was a numbers game once the Rangers got sustained pressure.

Canucks 2, Rangers 1

burrows goal

Klein too far over, doesn’t cover back door. Once Etem had the puck, he looked up and found Burrows. Easy goal.

Rangers 2, Canucks 2

Miller’s teammate actually knocked his stick loose, which gave the Rangers an advantage. Nash got the puck to Keith Yandle at the corner as Mats Zuccarello cut to the net. Yandle made a perfect pass, and Zucc converted.

Rangers 3, Canucks 2

Ryan McDonagh made a good play to keep control of the puck while Derek Stepan changed and J.T. Miller jumped on. McDonagh got the puck to Miller, whose initial shot was stopped by Miller. Miller picked up the loose puck and beat Miller to the far post with the wraparound.

Shot Attempts

cf

Complete domination. This will be a trend for the analysis of these charts.

Scoring Chances

scf

Not just quantity, but quality too. Pure dominance.

Individual Corsi

icorsi copy

I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen this. Not one Ranger in the negatives.

Shot Locations

locations copy

The Rangers’ chart on the right has lots of shots all over the ice, including a lot in high danger areas. Meanwhile the Canucks’ chart is sparsely populated with even fewer in the high danger areas. Those two goals due to defensive miscues are troubling, though.

Shift Chart

shift

The fourth line didn’t get any playing time with ten minutes remaining. What I did find interesting was Oscar Lindberg was also benched with them, but I guess that’s expected since Dominic Moore took his spot in regular shifts. Alain Vigneault trusts Moore more than Lindberg, tough to fault him.

This has the potential to be a win the Rangers can build on. They dominated the game, overcame stellar goaltending, found a way to tie it, then got the second point. Hopefully this is a confidence builder to get to that next level of play we expect from them.

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