Vesey nets his first hat trick as Rangers roll
RANGERS 6 HURRICANES 3
So now it’s 4-2-1 since the trade deadline for the Rangers’ best seven-game stretch since late December.
“No one is going to take it easy on us because we have a young lineup or anything like that,” 24-year-old sophomore Jimmy Vesey said following Monday’s 6-3 Garden victory over the Hurricanes. “We have to go out and play with passion and pride every night, and think we are doing a good job of it.”
Vesey contributed a hat trick to the effort that included a pair of goals from Mats Zuccarello, one from Vladislav Namestnikov and a 41-save night from Alexandar Georgiev with his team outshot 44-23.
“Sometimes it’s easier to play with so many shots,” the 22-year-old goalie said following his second straight victory. “You don’t have to keep refocusing.”
This represented a refocus for Vesey, who’d come in with just 12 goals overall and one in the last 13 games. The winger, a pending restricted free agent whose Broadway future is anything but secure off this disappointing season, scored his first goal from the left doorstep at 1:52 of the second period in converting a gorgeous backhand feed from Pavel Buchnevich, who went forward with the puck after winning a right wing draw.
His second that broke a 3-3 tie at 12:15 of the third came on a rising wrist shot from a sharp left angle near side over Scott Darling’s blocker, again on a feed from Buchnevich. The third came into an empty net at 19:36, just over two minutes after Zuccarello’s own empty-netter.
“[The hat trick] is definitely something you want to accomplish,” said the 2016 free agent signee out of Harvard. “I was just saying I remember it took me all four years in college to get one.
“Everyone dreams when they are a kid of scoring the big goal or scoring a hat trick. I think it’s something I’ll always remember, so it’s a great feeling.”
And the good feeling is beginning to spread among the players on this psychologically battered group of athletes.
“I think our game has been progressing,” Brady Skjei said. “We’re becoming more confident that we can win any game.”
➤ Tony DeAngelo sustained a left ankle injury going into the corner boards at 7:22 of the second period and did not return after being helped off the ice. Further information may be available Tuesday.