After giving up two early goals, the New York Rangers scored five unanswered goals to defeat the Washington Capitals 5-2. Adam Fox scored at 6:32 of the third period, which proved to be the game-winner. It was the first time this season that the Rangers have come-back to win a game when trailing in the third period.
Fox was selected as the NHL’s First Star of the Week for the week ending on Mar. 28. Since the NHL began awarding Three Stars of the Week at the start of the 2006-07 season, Fox is only the eighth defenseman who has been named the NHL’s First Star of the Week. He is the first Rangers defenseman to win that award. Also, Fox has recorded 20 points in March. Per @PR_NHL, Fox is the third Rangers defenseman who has recorded at least 20 points in a calendar month in franchise history.
Artemi Panarin had three points on the night with a goal and two assists. Per NYR Stats&Info, Panarin posted his fifth three-point game of the season, and all five have taken place at MSG.
Panarin’s goal came on a breakaway, as did Filip Chytil‘s, who scored the first goal of the night for the Blueshirts.
Kaapo Kakko and Pavel Buchnevich also scored for the Rangers.
Igor Shesterkin was excellent in goal, saving 30 of 32 shots, some of which were of the outstanding variety.
Ryan Strome extended his point streak to 10 games and his assist streak to nine games. With an assist in the next game, he will tie Rod Gilbert’s franchise record for consecutive games with an assist by a forward.
New York Rangers come alive and score four goals in the third period
After a lackluster first two periods, the Rangers came out fast and furious with their four-goal effort.
In his post-game interview, Chytil talked about what the difference was in the third period for the team. “We didn’t shoot too much the first two periods'” Chytil said. “We said in the locker room that we needed to shoot more. put more pucks to the net and we had a couple of nice plays.”
Shesterkin played extremely well after the first two early goals. The Rangers usually help their goalies out by limiting the number of shots that teams get on them. Coming into tonight’s game the Blueshirts had held its opponent to 30 shots on goal or fewer in 11 of the last 13 games and in 23 of 34 games this season. In his post-game Zoom conference, Shesterkin was asked about how he responded after the first two goals and he replied” “I just did my job. After the first two goals, I removed myself from that moment and continued to do my job.”
Head coach David Quinn was very pleased with his team’s response after giving up the two early goals. He talked about that and their excellent third period in his post-game Zoom conference. “We have to continue to have a shooting mentality. It’s really killing us against a team like that. We have to get more pucks to the net. I thought that third period the way we came out and got more pucks to the net. To come out with the tenacity we did was a really great sign.”
The Rangers return to action when they travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on both Thursday and Saturday nights.