RANGERS RALLY, WIN IN SHOOTOUT:
Jimmy nets tying goal and shootout winner
SUNDAY MARKED exactly 12 years since Marek Malik’s gamewinning shootout stunner, a between-the-legs, top-shelf finish that ended what was then a record-long 15-round shootout.
This wasn’t as long and didn’t end as remarkably, but a dozen years later it was Jimmy Vesey sealing a 4-3 Rangers’ victory against Vancouver in the seventh round of the shootout after he had scored the tying goal at 5:05 of the third period.
In overcoming a sloppy afternoon at the Garden, the Rangers (13-9-2) earned their fourth straight win and have won 10 of their last 12. They extended their home winning streak to eight, tied for the fifth-longest in franchise history.
After taking a late secondperiod shift with Rick Nash and Kevin Hayes following Jesper Fast’s goal with 2:20 left in the second period, which cut the deficit to 2-1, Vesey remained up there from the fourth line throughout the third and finished off a spin-o-rama feed from Nash to tie the game at 3.
A wide-open Vesey confidently cut across to his backhand for his fifth goal of the season.
“You have a million things going through your mind when you get a chance like that,” Vesey said. “Your eyes always light up and you are playing a scenario in your head before it even happens.”
Henrik Lundqvist (29 saves) was a rookie that night in 2005 when the NHL first adopted the shootout, on the opposite end from Malik’s shocking move. He isn’t happy with how he’s fared in the skills competition since then. “I remember the good old days when I actually was really good on shootouts, but I’m working on it,” said Lundqvist, who told Alain Vigneault to let Vancouver shoot first in the shootout and the coach obliged.
Meanwhile, the Rangers are working through some consistency issues while still putting together results. They were outshot 11-4 in an ugly first period, when that simple game the Rangers harp on so often was nonexistent.
“That mixed with (the Canucks) coming out like gangbusters,” said Kevin Shattenkirk, who kept the Rangers in it by scoring in the third round of the shootout. “You have to really credit them. They came out hitting, they came out forechecking really well and hemmed us in our zone, didn’t allow us to make clean plays. Then we started to try to do things that weren’t there.”
Nineteen seconds into the third, Michael Grabner’s 10th goal of the season tied the game, 2-2, but Sam Gagner answered just 41 seconds later, Lundqvist swatting the puck away in frustration after the goal.
Nash knew after Hayes chipped the puck ahead that Vesey would be oncoming and managed to make a perfect pass.
It was the kind of high-level play the Blueshirts needed on a far-from-ideal afternoon that ended with them occupying a playoff position, almost unfathomable at this stage after those first 12 games.
“Sometimes good teams find ways to win games when they don’t play their best,” Vigneault said. “That was definitely the case (Sunday.)”