Strong penalty kill helps Rangers top Coyotes in home opener
Chris Kreider of the Rangers celebrates his first-period goal against the Coyotes with his teammates at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Penalty-killers rarely get any glory in hockey, but in the Rangers’ regular-season home opener Monday night, their man-down guys, along with goaltender Igor Shesterkin, were the biggest heroes in a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes.
The penalty-killers snuffed out a crucial five-on-three Coyotes power play that bridged the end of the second and the start of the third periods. Then Shesterkin stopped a penalty shot by Arizona’s Jason Zucker with 4:48 remaining in the third period to help the Rangers earn their second win in three games.
“To kill a five-on-three [and to get] the penalty-shot save was really important inside the game,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said. “That was a pretty gutsy effort.’’
Vincent Trocheck’s tip-in for a power-play goal at 8:26 of the third period proved to be the winning goal, but the Rangers would never have had a chance had their penalty kill not snuffed four of five Arizona power plays.
Then, as the Blueshirts sought to protect the lead, Barclay Goodrow was caught tripping Zucker from behind, and Zucker was awarded a penalty shot.
The lefthanded shooter swooped in from the right wing and fired a shot that Shesterkin stopped with his blocker pad.
“On a penalty shot, it’s more like mind games,’’ said Shesterkin, who made 26 saves. “When he moved on his right side, I was ready for a shot.’’
The victory improved the Rangers to 2-1. Arizona, which looks like a much-improved group over the team that was 28-40-14 last season, fell to 1-1.
The Rangers, who won their season opener in Buffalo last Thursday before losing at Columbus on Saturday, took the lead at 14:11 of the first period. Kaapo Kakko won a puck on the boards in his own end and chipped it out, springing Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider on a two-on-one break. Zibanejad went wide on the right and centered a pass for Kreider, who banged it in behind goalie Connor Ingram for his fourth goal of the season.
Penalties began to disrupt the rhythm of the game in the second period and helped Arizona tie the score. The Rangers were called for four penalties in the middle period to Arizona’s one. The first of the Blueshirts’ penalties, a holding call on Braden Schneider against Logan Cooley, led to Clayton Keller’s one-timer power-play goal at 5:00 that made it 1-1.
The Rangers killed a holding penalty against K’Andre Miller and then failed to score on their only power play of the period when Travis Dermott was sent off for a rare holding-the-stick penalty. Then the Rangers’ penalty-killers were called on to do more heavy lifting when Alexis Lafreniere was called for a slashing penalty and a frustrated Ryan Lindgren — back in the lineup after missing Saturday’s game because of an upper-body injury — was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct after he fired the puck in anger after the call.
That meant the Rangers had to kill a full two minutes of five-on-three, beginning with 1:19 left in the second period.
“We had the end of the period, which kind of helped out,’’ said Jacob Trouba, who played the full two minutes and had two huge blocked shots during the two-man disadvantage.
“Usually, it’s you’ve got to find the time to get off the ice with a full two minutes. We actually kind of stay in the [shooting] lane, recover back. You’re probably going to give up a couple opportunities, a couple chances. You’ve just got to be good and force the shots from the outside. I thought we did a pretty good job of that.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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