The Rangers met the Seattle Kraken last night with a chance to win back to back games for the first time since Christmas and sweep the season series with the Kraken (4-1 win October 21st). Seattle came into the game on a heater going 9-1 in their previous 10 games. A 3-0 shutout loss to the Penguins in their last game snapped a 9 game winning streak.
The first period began with two early power plays for the Rangers and they took advantage of it. After no success on their first man advantage, Vincent Trochek put home a back door no look pass by Artemi Panarin to give the good guys a 1-0 lead on the power play.
Shortly after, Barclay Goodrow was sent to the box for an after the whistle punch on Tomas Tatar. Seattle made them pay when Jordan Eberle put home a shot from the slot after a turnover by Trocheck in the neutral zone (right idea, poor execution).
The tie score was short lived, as New York responded less than a minute later when Erik Gustafsson ended a long goal scoring drought after jumping up in the rush and snapping one home with Chris Kreider causing chaos at the net front.
The 2nd period has become an issue of late and the script didn’t change last night for a large chunk of the 2nd frame. Seattle created numerous chances, but Igor earned his All-Star nomination, as the Rangers netminder rose to the occasion and kept the Blueshirts in front.
The Rangers would stay afloat and then after some nice cycling down low, Blake Wheeler would tip home a shot from Jonny Brodzinski to give them some much needed breathing room with 7:28 left in the 2nd.
They would add a fourth goal on the night on a 2-on-1 one timer from Kappo Kakko off a great feed from Mika Zibanejad. It was so great seeing Kakko put one in the back of the net and you could see how pumped his teammates were too. Great to see him back in the lineup.
Despite being out shot 16-10 in the previous period, the Rangers came into the 3rd with a 4-1 lead and never looked back. It was a largely uneventful period, as the Rangers contained Seattle to only 7 shots on goal. They would get one back late on a backhand beauty by Jared McCann on the power play, but even that 2 goal deficit was short lived as Wheeler sealed the deal with and empty netter for his 2nd of the net.
The 5-2 win brings the Rangers to 58 points and still in first in the Metro. They will now be heading out West for 4 games against Vegas and the trio of teams from the Golden State. Maybe I am crazy, but I always love staying up late to watch the West Coast games. Reminds me of sneaking out of bed on a school night when I was kid, to go watch the late night games.
Anyways, good to see the Rangers bring some good juju with them to the Pacific…hopefully the bring it to the craps table as well.
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