PK gives the Rangers a much needed win

On December 21, 2024By Littum

DALLAS – If the Rangers are going to turn this season around, they had to start somewhere.

Maybe it was Friday night in Dallas.

It didn’t look pretty at first and they took far too many penalties, but the killing was excellent and they held on for a 3-1 win over the Stars at the American Airlines Center.

It snapped a three-game losing streak and at least briefly stopped the bleeding after losing 11 of their previous 14.

“It’s huge,” said Adam Fox, who again led the team with 27:15 of time on ice, including 6:50 shorthanded. “Obviously, it’s no secret. We haven’t liked our game the last month, call it that. We’ve spoken as a group. We know we’ve got this in us. It takes everybody to do it. It’s not one guy here and there.”

The Rangers (16-15-1) had won just three of 17 previous games when they allowed the first goal before picking up their fourth comeback win of the season on Friday.

The penalty kill was at the center of that effort, with the Blueshirts thwarting seven total power-play opportunities for the Stars, including a five-minute major in the final period. That, along with 41 saves from Igor Shesterkin (including 21 shorthanded), helped them overcome a 42-30 deficit in shots and a 19-11 deficit in high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

It also gave them a gutsy win as they began playing seven straight teams currently in playoff position, with the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Sunday afternoon.

“We needed it,” said Reilly Smith, who scored a key shorthanded goal in the first period. “We have two more games coming up just before the (Christmas) break and we have to make sure (we have) that mindset for the next game. We have to try to collect as many points as we can before the break and then we will assess after that. But right now we have to try to make up for lost time.”

Penalty kill comes up huge

The early impression was that Rangers were headed for more disappointment. They came out flat and looked particularly loose defensively.

Roope Hintz beat Mika Zibanejad for a rebound in the slot and cashed in to make it 1-0 Stars at the 1:46 mark, but it could have been worse. The struggling Zibanejad was also at fault moments earlier when Jamie Benn outmaneuvered him on another juicy rebound, but he was lucky when Rangers coach Peter Laviolette challenged the play for offside and the goal was disallowed.

“A couple of sloppy plays,” Fox said. “The first one was five feet offside. Yes, they scored but we didn’t really get much into it. Obviously they got one soon after but I think it was good of us not to get demoralized and pick up The energy and execution was there, I think that’s what really paid off for us.

Shesterkin made some tough saves in the first 10 minutes to limit the damage, keeping New York close enough to turn the momentum on its first penalty kick.

It’s not an exaggeration to say the Rangers have looked their sharpest when shorthanded this season. Their defense tightens up in these man-down situations, and their forwards have shown an attacking mindset they’ve been lacking at five-on-five.

“Like a capital murder, you have to be willing to find wrongdoing,” Smith said. “Usually you’ve got five guys on the opposite side trying to find offense and they’re not really that worried about giving up chances. It’s not at the forefront of their thinking, so once you turn the puck over, sometimes are you able to jump a guy and create some odd-man rushes, we do a good job of that.

Smith turned the game around while killing a penalty at the 10:44 mark.

He pounced when Dallas defenseman Thomas Harley misplayed a puck at the blue line and turned it into a breakaway goal that tied the game at 1-1.

“That’s a big goalie, just try to beat him low,” Smith said of Stars netminder Jake Oettinger. “You don’t see much of the net, so sometimes you just try to drive one past him.”

The Rangers looked like a different team from that point forward — “It just gave the bench good life,” Laviolette said — with Vincent Trocheck producing the go-ahead on a long shot from the point less than five minutes later.

They were outscored 33-16 in the final two periods combined, but PK ended up going 7-for-7 and is now the No. 1 in the NHL with a success rate of 88%. The Blueshirts used 13 different skaters in shorthanded situations, including all six defensemen.

“Seventeen minutes on the PK is pretty ugly,” Trocheck said. “We can get a lot of momentum from our PK when it plays like it did tonight.”

Matt Rempe makes a positive impact – until the end

For most of the game, Matt Rempe looked like a big bright spot.

Making his first NHL appearance since Nov. 25, the 6-foot-9 forward’s controlled aggression made a tangible difference for the previously sluggish Rangers.

Rempe picked up the pace and drew three Dallas penalties in the second period alone. The Rangers failed to convert on either, but he was a handful for the Stars to handle all night. It included some of his usual thunderous hits, including a pair of high-speed collisions with 6-foot-7 defender Lian Bichsel.

Laviolette said before the game that the Rangers needed more size, speed and physicality, and in periods over two-plus, Rempe provided all three.

“I thought he had a big impact in the game,” Laviolette said. “Our guys really rallied around it, too.”

But with 12:47 left, he fell back into old habits.

Rempe crunched Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen into the boards and let his right elbow come up too high, resulting in a five-minute major and game misconduct.

His teammates had his back and killed it, followed by a shutout from Chris Kreider to secure the win. But it was another example of the risk that comes with having Rempe in the lineup.

The 22-year-old has now been ejected from four of his 22 career NHL games and could face further discipline for his latest infraction.

“I don’t want him to stop being who he is,” Trocheck said. “You don’t want to see a guy get hurt, but Remps is the kind of guy that’s a tough forecheck guy, comes in on the forecheck, hits guys, and that’s kind of how he creates his energy for the team. We won the game, so I don’t think he has anything to worry about.”

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the one New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more about his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.