The New York Rangers have beaten the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 3–2 in overtime, with Mika Zibanejad being the hero to send the Blueshirts home with their fifth straight victory. It wasn’t a pretty game, but New York managed to close out their five-game stretch away from MSG with a perfect 5-0 record.
There were a lot of things that went right right for the Rangers tonight and a lot that went wrong. The Blueshirts should consider themselves lucky after walking out of Winnipeg with their win streak intact. Either way, there is a lot to rake away from this victory in central Canada.
The birthday star pulled through with another elite performance for the Rangers
Tonight was Artemi Panarin’s 32nd birthday. With his increasing age comes concerns that he is reaching the beginning of the end of his career, but the Breadman showed no signs of slowing down tonight. Panarin recorded three points tonight (2g, 1a), extending his point streak to nine straight and totaling 15 points so far this season.
Panarin is having the best season of his Ranger tenure so far. As the points continue to flow, so does his elite defensive and physical play that the Blueshirts have never seen from him before. If he continues to keep this elite play up, there could very well be a Hart Trophy in his future.
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Penalties continue to cause problems for the Rangers
Tonight, the Jets had three power play opportunities. The Rangers managed to kill off all three, but the problem should not be erased because of that. The fact that the Blueshirts had to spend almost the first two minutes of overtime down by a player is unacceptable.
The Rangers need to be more disciplined moving forward. Erik Gustafsson took two penalties tonight, and Ryan Lindgren the third. Lindgren’s call was questionable, but the Rangers do need to be better either way. The Blueshirts should be happy that their PK pulled through, otherwise, this game could have had a much different ending.
This victory set a record for the Rangers’ franchise
Per Mollie Walker, tonight’s victory became the first time in Rangers’ franchise history that the team has won every game of a road trip consisting of five or more games. The Blueshirts needed to capitalize early on this season, as there weren’t many home games to start the season.
The Rangers are going back home with the best win streak in the NHL
Thursday night will feature the Rangers in their first home game in five contests. They will take on the Carolina Hurricanes, their divisional rivals, in what might prove to be a playoff-determining contest later down the road.
New York only led the Hurricanes by two points with one game in hand. It’s still early in the season, but in a division as competitive as the Metro, every game counts. The Rangers will look to use their forward momentum and carry them into their future contests heading into November.
