Rangers tie franchise record with 10th straight win as rookie Matt Rempe scores winner
The Rangers' Matt Rempe celebrates scoring the go-ahead goal against the Philadelphia Flyers in the third period on Saturday. Credit: AP/Derik Hamilton
PHILADELPHIA — The Rangers are throwing punches — a lot of them — and winning games.
A lot of them.
Now they have a chance to make history on Sunday.
Rookie Matt Rempe went toe-to-toe with Flyers tough guy Nicolas Deslauriers in what might have been the NHL’s fight of the year — or many years. Rempe then scored his first NHL goal — a tiebreaking deflection in the third period — to give the Rangers a 2-1 win at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday.
The Rangers tied a franchise record with their 10th consecutive victory. It’s the third time the Rangers have won 10 in a row. They also did it from Dec. 19, 1939-Jan. 13, 1940, and Jan. 19-Feb. 10, 1973.
The Rangers can set a franchise record on Sunday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.
Rempe’s goal originally was credited to Barclay Goodrow. The Rangers thought it was the first career goal in the fourth NHL game for the 6-7 Rempe, who was camped in front of goalie Samuel Ersson and had Braden Schneider’s blast glance off his shin.
Rempe celebrated and the Rangers’ staff prepared the puck to present it to the 21-year-old center from Calgary. But the official call gave the goal to Goodrow, apparently on what someone thought was an earlier deflection.
About 10 minutes later, the goal was credited to Rempe, who participated in the other highlight of the afternoon with an old-fashioned hockey fight with the 6-1 Deslauriers three minutes into the game.
The two exchanged multiple haymakers for up to a minute in a fight that thrilled the crowd and (probably) the national ABC/ESPN audience.
“He asked me [to fight] in warmups,” said Rempe, who has had three fights in his first four games. “He’s a real tough customer and I said, ‘Hell, yeah, let’s go.’ It was a great fight. We were throwing bombs. A long fight. It was awesome. It got the juices flowing and it was unreal.”
Said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette: “You don’t see a lot of that — just standing back and throwing [punches] like that for a minute. It was a good one, for sure.”
What a week it’s been for Rempe. In his first NHL shift last Sunday in the outdoor game at MetLife Stadium, he fought with the Islanders’ Matt Martin.
In the Rangers’ last game on Thursday, Rempe was assessed a match penalty (automatic ejection) just 2:25 in for a hit to the head of Devils forward Nathan Bastian.
“It’s a dream come true,” Rempe said. “I don’t even know how to describe it. I’m honored to be here and I want to make the most of this opportunity.”
But if Rempe wants to be more than just a fighter, he has to do things like using his size to harass a goalie until a puck pings in off his leg.
“I felt something hit my shin pad pretty hard,” Rempe said. “I didn’t know if it was a puck. I didn’t know if it was a stick. But I’ll take it.”
Saturday’s game was scoreless until midway through the second period. With the sides skating four-on-four, Alexis Lafreniere took a pass from Vincent Trocheck and blasted the puck past Ersson for his 17th goal and sixth in his last 10 games.
The Flyers tied it 2:36 into the third period when a sprawling Scott Laughton wrapped a pass from behind the net to Tyson Foerster, who beat Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers goalie was otherwise impenetrable as he made 40 saves to win his sixth straight start.
Philadelphia, which had gone 5-1-1 in its previous seven games, was without Travis Konecny, who leads the team in goals and points. He was ruled out just before game time with an upper-body injury.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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