FORWARD LEAP
This was one that came out of nowhere. That does not necessarily refer to the Rangers’ current position in the standings, but instead to the emptiness that could be felt after a second period Wednesday at the Garden in which the Bruins capitalized for three goals in a span of 4:34 to take a two-goal lead into the third.
But the Rangers were not ready to call it a night. They were not ready to lay down their sticks and turn them into plowshares, though that might not have been the most outlandish idea considering how much trouble every Blueshirt other than Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider has had scoring over the past two weeks.
They were not ready to quit, which is something this team rarely has done through this different season, which is expected to take a dramatic turn as the Feb. 25 trade deadline comes into clearer focus. That, however, is not the players’ focus.
“As a group we haven’t wanted to use any excuses,” Zibanejad said after the Blueshirts rallied for two in the third period to tie, survived a wildly entertaining three-on-three overtime, and then captured a seven-round shootout on Tony DeAngelo’s decisive score to beat the Bruins, 4-3. “We are not willing to write off the year.
“We want to prove people wrong. We want to get better. And as a group, we are still playing for a spot in the playoffs. It would be weird not to.”
The Blueshirts have won 23 of their 52 games, 23-22-8 the way the NHL does its voodoo accounting. They are in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, and seven points out of the second wild-card spot with six teams over which to leapfrog in order to gain a playoff berth.
“You’re always talking about what’s going on around the league, that’s only natural, but we don’t focus on that,” said Zibanejad, who scored the game’s first goal and also beat Jaroslav Halak in the third round of the skills competition.
Zibanejad’s goal, off a feed from Mats Zuccarello, came at 17:45 of the first period and provided the Blueshirts with a 1-0 lead. The goal represented his 10th — with eight assists — over the past 10 games. The assist extended Zuccarello’s point-scoring streak to nine games, over which time he has 15 points (5 goals, 10 assists).
The Rangers, who entered the game fourth from the bottom in NHL scoring with 2.75 goals-per game (shootout winners excluded), predictably failed to build the lead. The Bruins instead took command by getting goals from Danton Heinen, David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron. All seemed lost.
But no. Coach David Quinn shuffled line combinations, moving Jimmy Vesey up from the fourth line to skate beside Kevin Hayes and Jesper Fast. And it was Vesey who set up Hayes for the 3-2 goal at 9:24 before Filip Chytil put one in from the left porch on the power play at 12:41 to knot it.
“I just wanted to shake the lines up,” Quinn said. “As we’ve all noted, we haven’t gotten much secondary scoring. That was the thought process.”
The Blueshirts (who have lost six straight decided by three-on-three) seemingly spent all five minutes of overtime exchanging twoon-one’s with the Bruins, with both Alexandar Georgiev and Halak outstanding under duress. Then came the skills competition.
“I love shootouts. They’re fun,” said Georgiev, who is 3-0 and has allowed just three goals on 14 attempts in shootouts. “This one is really sweet.”
The victory was achieved when DeAngelo, whose 24:06 represented the third most ice-time of his career, beat Halak to extend his NHL career shootout record to two-for-two.
“A lot of guys like to shoot blockers,” DeAngelo said. “I thought I’d switch it up and go right to left instead of left to right.”
DeAngelo was back in the lineup and on the top pair for the second straight game after sitting out a pair to deal with what Quinn now famously told The Post was “a maturity issue.” The young man played a mighty mature game while doing a fair amount of mouthing off to a reciprocal Boston bench that featured Brad Marchand. It was a performance that pleased Quinn.
“I want him pushing that envelope as far as he can without letting it get in the way of his performance or being a detriment to the team,” the coach said. “Marchand is as good at it in the league as there is. I’d take 100 Marchands.”