When analysts think about the young talent the New York Rangers possess, guys like Kaapo Kakko, K’Andre Miller, and Alexis Lafreniere are usually the first players that come to mind. Players like Julien Gauthier, Jaz Jones, and Braden Schneider aren’t the first players that fans may consider.
But Jones, Schneider, and Gauthier each made key contributions to end the Rangers’ four-game losing streak with a 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon.
Dallas got the scoring started early when Mason Marchment tallied his fourth goal of the season just one minute into the contest. New York would answer halfway through the first period though when Chris Kreider scored his first goal since the second game of the season off of assists by Braden Schneider and Kaapo Kakko.
One key to the Rangers’ recent struggles was a New York Powerplay that was just one for their last 15 in their recent stretch of losses. That quickly ended in the second period though when Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad both scored with the man advantage.
Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, and Chris Kreider were all credited with assists on both powerplay goals. Yet every time one team got momentum, the other team would respond shortly after. Roope Hintz would tie the score at two just a minute after Trocheck’s goal, while Jason Robertson deadlocked the game at three shortly before the end of the second period.
Saturday was touted as one that would see two of the best goaltenders in the NHL with Igor Shesterkin facing off against Jake Oettinger. Oettinger saw just 10 shots though before exiting the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. The Rangers were able to score twice off of Dallas’ top goaltender.
Shesterkin on the other hand tallied 30 saves and recorded his fourth win of the season. At 4-0-2, Shesterkin became the first Ranger goaltender to start the season with points in each of his first six games since 1981-82 according to the Rangers Stats and Info Twitter account.
In Oettinger’s stay, Scott Wedgewood kept the Rangers at bay to end the second period with the score tied at three.
But in a span of two full minutes, the Rangers ended up doubling their opponents in the final period.
The scoring rush started with Zac Jones scoring his first career NHL goal off a feed from Vincent Trocheck and Julien Gauthier. Gauthier would make the play of the day just 20 seconds later with a hustle play breaking through the Stars’ defense and beating Wedgewood for his first goal of the season and planting momentum clearly on the side of the blue and white.
Vincent Trocheck would tally his second goal of the game just a minute later off of a key three-on-two rush with Zibanejad and Lafreniere to get the Rangers back to their normal winning ways.
But the night belonged to the unlikely heroes of the Blueshirts. Jones, Schneider, and Gauthier tallied five total points in Saturday’s win.
The play of Jones, Schneider, and Gauthier led New York to their first win in their last four games. The Rangers (4-3-2) will be back on the ice Sunday afternoon for their third back-to-back showing of the first month of the season when they play the Arizona Coyotes.
Game Notes
- Vitali Kravtsov, playing in his first game since suffering an upper-body injury a couple of games ago, went off again with another upper-body injury when he tried to keep the puck from being iced, but was hit along the boards in response. Kravtsov did not return to the game.
- New York’s secret talent this season has been to control the puck. The team, with the help of free agent signings of Vincent Trocheck and Ryan Carpenter, won the face-off battle by
- The Rangers appeared to give up the lead earlier in the third period when both Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren were a part of a turnover and Jason Robertson converted to an apparent lead, but Gerard Gallant challenged and won the review that showed the Stars were offsides. Minutes after the goal was taken down, the Rangers would score three straight to win the game.
- It wasn’t the best day for the entirety of the defensive groups. Midway into the third period, after the Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller line tallied a -3, Gerard Gallant split them up with Zac Jones and Braden Schneider.
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