The New York Rangers were on the verge of losing four straight games on Saturday as they chase a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
What became a 5-3 victory was primarily commanded by the Vancouver Canucks, who outshot the Rangers 39-12 and tied that game with less than five minutes remaining in the third period.
An unsuspecting hero emerged for New York, however, in Jonny Brodzinski. The role-playing bottom-six forward scored two goals, including the game-winner at 4:13 to seize the ever-dire two points in the crowded playoff race.
Brodzinski shared that after the first two frames, "yelling" transpired in the locker room in order to galvanize the team to respond.
“We need points right now and we’re still in this run. … After those first two periods, a little bit of yelling in the locker room. I think we figured it out as a team, gotta stop turning pucks over and shooting ourselves in the foot,” Rangers forward Jonny Brodzinski said postgame. “After that, pucks just started to find their way into the net.”
Although the Rangers were able to claim the win in the third period, their play wasn't all that much different. They generated six shots, one of which being an empty-net goal, and continued to allow a handful of high-danger scoring chances to the Canucks.
Igor Shesterkin earned his keep once again, now sitting at No. 3 overall in the NHL in goals saved above expected (21.1) according to Moneypuck.
“We were doing just too many things to hurt ourselves. We’re not finishing checks, we’re not getting pucks deep and when we were, we had one guy going hard and we had two guys kind of sitting back in our lock. Just playing way more direct, more simple and good things happen,” Brodzinski explained.
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