MSG honors attack victims, Rangers rally
ON Halloween night, in what felt like an all-too-important October contest, the Rangers found a kindle of light.
After trailing by two entering the third, the Blueshirts scored four goals in the final period, with Mika Zibanejad scoring the go-ahead goal on a power play with 5:49 left to give them a 6-4 victory Tuesday night over the Vegas Golden Knights.
“We were tired of losing all the time and just want to win,” said Pavel Buchnevich, who was reunited on a line with Zibanejad and Chris Kreider and scored for the fourth time in three games, his goal tying the match at 4 at 9:26 of the third.
The theme remains the same for the Blueshirts (4-7-2.) They fall behind, and then they manage to crawl their way back to keep games competitive, even if they have yet to put together a competent 60 minutes. They were far from good enough over the first two periods, only this time they found a way to win.
The Garden held a moment of silence before the game for the victims of Tuesday’s terror attack in lower Manhattan.
“It was emotional for me before the game,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “I talked to the group a little bit about the importance of the game. For me, my family is in that area every day and coming to the game not knowing if they were safe or not, it was not a good feeling.”
Said Alain Vigneault: “There was a lot of emotion in the dressing room before the game tonight with what happened today in Tribeca. A lot of our players live around there. They saw firsthand last year what the police and first responders do (prior to the season during a team building activity).”
The expansion Golden Knights, who have been active in trying to help the Las Vegas community heal from the mass shooting at the beginning of the month, were staying at a hotel in Battery Park in Lower Manhattan near the terrorist attack that killed at least eight people and seriously injuring 11 others. The team was delayed in leaving the area for the Garden, but arrived about 75 minutes before the puck dropped.
“The opening ceremony (before the first game) was a big night for us,” said Vegas coach Gerard Gallant, whose team has already dealt with alot in its short existence. “The guys felt they owed it to the city to work hard and compete hard. The hockey results were good, but it wasn’t about hockey at that time.”
After Tuesday night’s moment of silence, the teams were able to focus on hockey and the Rangers recognized they have a long way to go before they can feel completely good about their game.
“It’s just one game. We still have a lot to fix,” said Mats Zuccarello, who tied the game, 2-2, early in the second. “We’re not gonna be able to score six goals a game to win hockey games. We have to be able to win 2-1 or 1-0. We’ve got to clean up our defensive act. It was not a perfect game, but it was a perfect win at the end.” There are still too many headscratching puck decisions, still too many defensive lapses, still too many chaotic shifts in their own zone. Just too many of the same mistakes that have doomed them night after night.
Thirty seconds into the game, Vegas already had a three-on-one. Brendan Smith had an awful night and played just 34 seconds in the third period while his brother, Reilly, scored twice for Vegas (8-3).
The Rangers were playing against Vegas’ fourth-string goaltender, Maxime Lagace, because of injuries to the first three and were down 4-2 after 40 minutes following David Perron’s penalty shot with 1:01 left in the second.
After the Rangers killed off an interference by Michael Grabner, who scored an empty-netter, Perron took two tripping penalties before play was blown dead to give the Rangers a four-minute power play at 4:51 of the third.
Forty seconds later, Kreider finished off a Zibanejad feed on a drive to the net to cut the deficit to one. Zibanejad then set Buchnevich up with a wide open net in front at 9:26 to tie the game.
“Of course we were (sick of losing,)” Zuccarello said. “Nobody in here wants to lose hockey games. Everyone knows we have to prepare better. Every individual has to play better. No one’s been up to their standards. But sometimes it’s a win like this that can maybe get us out of it.”
— with Jake Becker & AP