The New York Rangers tightened up defensively in Thursday’s dramatic overtime win over the New Jersey Devils and continued some of their recent improvement Saturday night against the best team in the Western Conference.
So perhaps it was appropriate the fourth line came through with the decisive goal as Adam Edstrom scored with 14:03 remaining in the third period to give the Rangers a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in the opener of a three-game Western road trip.
Edstrom missed most of the first period after blocking a shot near the blue line by Shea Theodore in the opening minutes but returned by the second and then capped off an outstanding sequence to snap a 1-1 tie.
Blanketed by Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin in front of the net and with his back to goaltender Ilya Samsonov, Edstrom was able to get enough of his stick on a pass from the right faceoff circle by Jonny Brodzinski for the deflection goal to end a sequence that started with Matt Rempe making an outlet pass out of the defensive zone.
“I know Remps got it on the wall, a great outlet pass Jonny there,” Edstrom said. “We kind of talked about crashing the net. I was just trying to get in there. I got a tip on the puck and it went in.”
It was Edstrom’s third goal of the season and first in 20 games since Nov. 27 at Carolina. It also was the first career game-winning goal in his 53-game career for the 24-year-old forward, who debuted in Dec. 2023.
Edstrom’s goal along with some standout defense gave the Rangers their first winning streak since getting three straight wins Nov. 14-19 as part of their 12-4-1 start. The Rangers also are 4-1-1 in their past six contests following a four-game skid Dec. 22-30 and kept pace with some of the competition trying to move into a wild-card spot.
“It’s two wins but we’re playing a better brand of hockey right now,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’re doing the right things to win games and I think when you do that more consistently, your chances of being successful they go up.”
Vincent Trocheck scored a quirky power-play goal in the second on a setup by Mika Zibanejad, who suddenly has a six-game points streak.
Igor Shesterkin was strong again in his second start since missing four games with an upper-body injury. He followed up his showing against the Devils with a 29-save performance, allowing only a power-play tally by Mark Stone.
Aided by a more attentive defense who blocked 21 shots after blocking 20 against the Devils, Shesterkin came up with two big saves on a power play in the final minutes of the third. He tracked Stone moving through the crease and came out of the net for the save with 2:24 left and then denied Tomas Hertl 30 seconds later.
“As a team defensively, it seems like we’ve been doing that better the last couple of games,” said defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who has seven blocked shots in the past two games. “That’s the key to winning games. So it was a good one tonight for us.”
New York Rangers 2, Vegas Golden Knights 1
After a scoreless opening period that saw Reilly Smith get denied on three straight shots with about 10 minutes left, the teams traded power-play goals.
Trocheck was called for a holding penalty that infuriated Laviolette and nine seconds later Stone snuck in from behind the right side of the net to tuck a wraparound past Shesterkin with 13:43 remaining.
The Rangers drew their first power-play when Keegan Kolesar tripped K’Andre Miller with 11 1/2 minutes later and sustained pressure in the offensive zone before Trocheck parked himself in front of the net and deflected a slap shot from Mika Zibanejad off his chest and into the net with 10:06 left.
Trocheck immediately headed to the locker room after celebrating his 14th goal but returned for his next shift a little over three minutes later.
After Trocheck’s goal, the Golden Knights sustained pressure in the final five-plus minutes and the Rangers were on the right side of a review when officials ruled Hanifin’s goal crossed the goal line after the buzzer sounded. Hanifin’s disallowed goal occurred after Jack Eichel had an open look that rang off the post with 1:43 left.
