The Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers were each looking to extend their winning streaks to three games. It took a shootout to ultimately decide the winner.
Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller scored in the shootout with Miller’s being the winner to lift the Rangers to a 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets on Saturday night. Kirill Marchenko scored the lone shootout goal for the Blue Jackets but it wasn’t enough.
The story of this game was two teams not giving an inch to the other as the game went on.
Game Recap
The first period saw no goals scored. After a slow start, the game picked up thanks to a penalty shot attempt.
Miles Wood was slashed on a breakaway. There was some concern as he was down on the ice in pain for over a minute. He was able to get up on his own and was able to attempt the penalty shot. Rangers’ goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped it.
From then on, the Rangers slowly started to take over. Shots on goal in the first were 10-4 Rangers. That momentum carried over into the second period.
With defenseman Damon Severson in the penalty box, Mika Zibanejad scored on the power play to make it 1-0 Rangers. His first shot was stopped by Blue Jackets’ goalie Jet Greaves. But then Zibanejad converted the rebound.
Then it was the Rangers turn to commit a penalty. They got caught with too many men on the ice. That resulted in the Blue Jackets scoring on the power play thanks to Dmitri Voronkov. Zach Werenski’s shot was saved by Shesterkin. Voronkov and his long reach scored on the rebound.
With an assist on Voronkov’s goal, Kirill Marchenko extended his current points streak to 11 games. He’s just two games off the franchise record of 13.
Then the moment of the night happened. Just 37 seconds after Voronkov’s goal, Sam Carrick and Mathieu Olivier dropped the gloves. Both players got shots in. Carrick went down at the end. Both benches got fired up as the combatants went to the locker room.
The second period ended 1-1. The Rangers held a 15-12 shot advantage in the second period and had 25-16 edge after 40 minutes.
But it was the Olivier fight that allowed the Blue Jackets to smooth things out. As head coach Dean Evason said postgame, “number 24” allowed them to get back into it.
In the third period, both teams played a tight checking game. They didn’t allow an inch to each other. As the period wore down, it became apparent both teams wanted to clinch a point. Mission accomplished.
Overtime didn’t solve anything. A shootout was needed. It marked the Ranger’s first shootout with Mike Sullivan as their head coach.
Miller’s goal clinched the shootout for the Rangers and the extra point. The Blue Jackets were pleased to get a point out of this game knowing how tight things were.
Shesterkin stopped 24 of 25 to get the win. Greaves stopped 31 of 32 in the shootout loss.
The Blue Jackets will have Sunday off before getting ready for Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. The Rangers will host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night in the second half of back-to-back games.
