The New York Rangers were backed into a corner and saw an opportunity to get out of it. They did just that on Sunday afternoon by steamrolling the depleted Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Kids Day at Madison Square Garden. The win ended a three-game losing streak.
A Very Physical Game
After playing the Islanders the night before, The Ducks came into Sunday’s game tired, sick and cranky. There were without its three leading scorers, as Rickard Rakell, Ryan Getzlaf, and Jakob Silfverberg all sat out. The latter two sat out with flu symptoms while Rakell was listed with an upper-body injury. This all led to an ever-increasing physical game, starting in the second period. Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Lemieux were both given 10-minute misconducts. Gudbranson earned his trip to the penalty box after dropping his gloves in an attempt to fight Lemieux, but Lemieux declined to join him. By the time the second period ended, 36 total penalty minutes had been handed out. Anaheim and New York entered Sunday each having taken 15 major penalties this season, tied for most in the league, and they did little to give up their league leads in that category. The Ducks ran into a team, as Head Coach David Quinn said in his post-game news conference that was a little pissed off about how they played in the Toronto game.
Power Play Still Struggling
The Blueshirts finished 0-for-5 on the man advantage, leaving it without a power-play goal in four games. Fortunately, they did not need it. Due to the physical nature of the game, they were confronted with three stretches of 4-on-4 play, including a 4-on-3 opportunity for the Ducks late in the second period. They dominated the short-handed possessions and even added a short-handed goal in the third period. The Rangers did manage to put up 41 shots on goal but Quinn commented that he thought there were 20 more opportunities to take shots. The Ducks only managed 21 shots, which made for light work for Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist.
The New York Rangers jump right back into action on Monday night when they travel to Philadelphia to take on their division rivals.