Rangers building ‘thicker skin’ after comeback win over Flyers

NEW YORK — Things looked bleak for the New York Rangers midway through the second period of Saturday’s 5-4 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Rangers had just conceded three goals in less than four minutes, as their 1-0 lead had quickly turned into a 3-1 deficit. Nicolas Deslauriers, soon after, was called for boarding young Rangers forward Brennan Othmann — who, when he tried to defend himself, was pummeled in a fight. Philadelphia would carry a two-goal lead into the third period.

New York responded with goals from Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad — who tied the game with a one-timer on a late power play — then killed off two penalties in overtime to force a shootout, where Artemi Panarin and Trocheck both scored to lift the Blueshirts.

“I just think it’s hockey,” said Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan. “It’s such a game of momentum. Second period wasn’t our best in a lot of ways. Give Philly credit, they played well in the second period, but what I love was the response we had in the third and the resilience to be able to dig in, find a way to get it within striking distance.”

Emotions of the comeback

Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider wasn’t on the ice for either of New York’s third and fourth goals, but credited the team for shrugging off the second period, in which they surrendered four goals. The Trocheck and Zibanejad goals helped them build momentum.

“We got some momentum there,” Schneider said. “We got that one, and the crowd got us into it, and then getting that one late to send us to overtime was huge.”

In overtime, New York was penalized twice and was forced to kill off two separate four-on-three power plays. Panarin, who scored the Rangers’ first two goals in regulation, was called for slashing just 0:08 into overtime, and Scott Morrow went off for tripping in the final minute. The Rangers stuck to their structure and kept the Flyers to the outside.

Asked postgame whether one of his teams had ever had to kill two penalties in a regular-season overtime, Sullivan said no.

“I hope it never happens again,” Sullivan said.

Obviously, our kill did its job in OT,” Schneider said. “And it’s a great two points to come away with.”

Schneider added that Saturday’s win showed the Rangers’ character. New York has now become the fifth team this season with multiple third-period, multi-goal comeback wins. The win was their second third-period, multi-goal comeback win of the season. They’ve had more (three) in just three other seasons: 2014-15, 2006-07 and 1941-42.

“It just shows that we’re building a thicker skin,” he explained. “We’re more resilient out there, we have a lot more confidence in what we’re doing, and we’re executing it. I think that’s the main thing. We had our looks a lot earlier in the year, and they just weren’t going in. Now, we’re bearing down, and we’re putting things away and we’re not quitting.”

Gabe Perreault moves up the lineup

Pregame, Sullivan spoke on his thought process behind starting top prospect Gabe Perreault on the third line, which is where he began Saturday’s game alongside Noah Laba and Will Cuylle. Perreault is an offensive player, and Sullivan had previously played him higher in the lineup. But that comes with added responsibility and challenges for young players.

“The flip side of that is, you’re going to play against the opponents’ top players,” Sullivan said pregame. “This time around, we thought more in terms of, ‘Would it make sense for Gabe if we put him around some different people and maybe he doesn’t get the top defense pair, and it gives him an opportunity to act on his instincts and do his thing that way? And then we’ll watch, and we’ll see, if there’s an opportunity to move him up, we’ll move him up, based on what we see and how he evolves.’”

For the second period of Saturday’s game, Sullivan switched Perreault with Conor Sheary, moving the former into the top six on the Trocheck-J.T. Miller line. The trio out-attempted Philadelphia 10-5 in the 7:31 they played together at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, and had a team-best 68.8% expected goal share.

Perreault tallied an assist on Trocheck’s goal in the third period and finished the game with a plus-1 rating.

“We liked Gabe’s game,” Sullivan said afterward. “We thought he was playing really well. We thought we’d give it a shot. I had this conversation with you guys before. It’s probably nothing that you didn’t expect and then saw. I hope that’s proof that I’m speaking the truth.”

J.T. Miller being evaluated for upper body injury

Miller was hurt in the third period on a reverse hit by Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler. He struggled to the Rangers bench and soon left for the Rangers locker room.

Sullivan said afterward that Miller was still being evaluated for an upper-body injury. At the time, Sullivan said he didn’t know more than that.

“I don’t want to say anything too early, because we don’t know what’s happened yet,” Panarin said. “But I hope he’ll be alright.”