Traverse City Recap: Rangers Defeat St. Louis to Take 5th Place in Traverse City
The New York Rangers concluded the 2019 Traverse City Prospects Tournament this afternoon with a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Blues in the fifth place game. In a not so surprising move, the Rangers elected to scratch the likes of Kaapo Kakko, Adam Fox, Vitali Kravtsov, Igor Shesterkin, and Yegor Rykov for today’s matchup. Training camp opens in New York on Thursday, so there’s no sense in risking injury when these players have already shown enough.
1st Period
The Rangers took an early lead in this game as Ryan Dmowski converted on a 2-on-1 rush into the zone, and gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead just five minutes into regulation. Joey Keane picked up the primary assist on the goal after an impressive end-to-end rush, and finished it off with a beautiful cross-ice feed to Dmowski on the back post.
Nearly seven minutes later, the Rangers extended their lead with Anthony Salinitri slapping home a pretty centering pass from Nick Jones. Tarmo Reunanen, who has had a really impressive tournament as well, picked up the secondary assist on the goal. New York continued to pour on the pressure in the first period and Jake Elmer made it a 3-0 game a little over a minute after Salinitri’s tally.
The Rangers were tasked with killing off a late first period penalty and they did so without any issue to retain their three-goal lead.
2nd Period
Just five minutes into the second period, the Rangers were handed a power play opportunity and they scored almost immediately. Nick Jones picked up his second point of the afternoon on the goal, and gave New York a commanding 4-0 lead. Taro Reunanen did an excellent job of selling the fake shot, and went cross-ice to Nick Jones for the tap in.
St. Louis made things interesting late in the second period as Alexey Toropchenko picked up a loose puck in front and slipped it by Adam Huska. Then, with less then six seconds remaining in the period, Klim Kostin pulled the Blues back within a pair of goals heading into the intermission.
3rd Period
After scoring a pair of goals to close out the second period, St. Louis came roaring back in the third with yet another goal. This time around, it was Mathias Laferriere converting on a one-timer and he brought the Blues back within a single goal.
The Rangers finally stopped the bleeding halfway through the period as Patrick Newell scored a goal during the 4-on-4 to restore New York’s two-goal lead. Karl Henriksson picked up the secondary assist Newell’s goal and capped off the afternoon with a three-point outing.
Adam Huska was able to keep St. Louis off of the scoreboard for the remainder of the period, and secured the fifth place game for the Rangers.
