Rangers Radar: All hail Georgiev

Georgiev closed the door on Toronto and Mika Zibanejad and Mats Zuccarello simply can’t be stopped

It’s time for another week of Rangers Radar, where we put the spotlight on trends in performance and production for players on the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack, as well as Rangers prospects playing elsewhere.


New York Rangers

  • Alexandar Georgiev’s 55-save performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 10 might just be the best game from a Rangers goaltender not named Henrik Lundqvist since the Mike Richter era. Georgiev stopped all 23 of the shots he faced while the Rangers were shorthanded. /
  • From Jan. 29 to Feb. 12 Mats Zuccarello shared the league lead in 5-on-5 primary points with Dominik Kahun of the Chicago Blackhawks. Zuccarello picked up six primary assists at 5-on-5 in that seven game window.
  • Between Jan. 31 and Feb. 12, the Kreider-Zibanejad-Zucarello line had a dominant +6 goal differential at 5-on-5. In that seven-game window, the Rangers’ top trio was on the ice for nine goals for at 5-on-5.
  • Mika Zibanejad has scored two or more goals in a game four times since Jan. 15. The 25-year-old center had three multi-goal games in 72 games last season. He now has 14 goals in his last 18 games.
  • Jimmy Vesey’s goal against Toronto on Feb. 10 was his first goal since Jan. 13. Vesey has three goals in his last 28 games. He’s now five goals shy of matching his single-season high./

Hartford Wolf Pack

  • Hartford snapped a nine-game losing streak on Feb. 9 against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Brandon Halverson (59th overall, 2014) stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced in that contest, earning his first AHL victory since Feb. 10, 2018.
  • Ryan Gropp (41st overall, 2015) scored the game-winning goal in the third period of Saturday’s game in Lehigh Valley. It was his third goal in his last 34 games. Gropp had 14 goals in 59 games last season as a rookie in the AHL.
  • Seven of Lias Andersson’s 19 points in the AHL this season have come on the power play. He hasn’t scored a power play goal for Hartford since Nov. 2 and has now played in nine-straight games without scoring a goal./
  • Connor Brickley has six points in 13 games since coming to Hartford after the Cole Schneider trade. Meanwhile, Schneider has eight points in his first 12 games with the Milwaukee Admirals.
  • Chris Bigras recently picked up his 14th even strength point of the season. The impressive pace that he started the 2018-19 season with hit a big snag in November and another major snag in January. Bigras has three points — all assists — in his last 16 games. He started the season with seven points in his first eight games.
  • Ty Ronning (201st overall pick in 2016) was called up to the Hartford Wolf Pack from the Maine Mariners yesterday. Ronning has 19 points in 22 games in the ECHL this season.
  • Tim Gettinger (141st overall, 2016) picked up his second multi-point game of the season last night in Hartford’s 3-2 win over the Toronto Marlies. Gettinger has 19 shots in his last five games.
  • Vinni Lettieri scored a goal in his first game back with the Hartford Wolf Pack last night. He’s averaging 3.46 SOG/GP in the AHL this year, which is up from the 2.58 SOG/GP he averaged in 2017-18./

Prospects

  • K’Andre Miller crashed into the end boards on Feb. 9 against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Thankfully, it appears that he did not sustained a serious injury. /
  • Tyler Nanne (142nd overall pick in 2014) has three goals and five assists in 29 games at the University of Minnesota this season. Nanne, a junior, will turn 23 in March.
  • Morgan Barron (174th overall pick in 2016) has eight points and 35 shots on goal in his last four games for Cornell University. He’s been kept out of the box score just once since Dec. 1, 2018.
  • Vitali Kravtsov can really skate./
  • Tarmo Reunanen (98th overall pick in 2016) is Lukko’s top scoring defenseman this season. Reunanen, 20, has picked up eight of his 20 points this season on the power play. He has the second-highest TOI/GP (21:20) on Lukko and has the 12th-highest TOI/GP in Liiga among defensemen. /
  • Lauri Pajuniemi (132nd overall pick in 2018) has four goals and eight assists this season for TPS. He’s averaging 13:15 TOI/GP this season after averaging 11:01 TOI/GP in his rookie season. Pajuniemi is tied for ninth in scoring in the Liiga among U20 players.
  • Joey Keane (88th overall, 2018) has 15 points at 5-on-5 through 50 games this season in the OHL. He has 13 points in 21 games since joining the London Knights on Dec. 28, 2018. After scoring 12 goals with the Barrie Colts last season, he has four goals this year on 140 shots. You can click here to see a view of his shot map on prospect-stats.com./

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Data courtesy of ahltracker.com, theahl.com, prospect-stats.com, hockeyeastonline.com, liiga.fi, eliteprospects.com.