Recap: Garand Shines, Blidh and Fortescue Score in 3-2 Loss to Devils

As training camp rolls on and opening night is just eight days away, the New York Rangers officially kicked off their preseason schedule with game one of four against the New Jersey Devils. 

Here’s how the Rangers lined up against a very NHL heavy Devils roster:  

Also an interesting trial for the Rangers as they wore their blue helmets with their white away jerseys, opposed to the typical matching white helmet. 

First Period

It was a fairly low event, back and forth start through the first half of the opening period. Dylan Garand made a couple of important saves with the Rangers best chance coming from an attempted shot through a screen by Brody Lamb. Nearing the midway mark of the period, Adam Sykora took a big hit along the boards from Mikael Diotte and crashed into the boards awkwardly. His leg sort of buckled under him as he went into the boards which resulted in him needing assistance in getting off the ice. He would not return to the game. 

Play across the second half of the period was a bit more sloppy with both sides getting chances off broken plays. With just under a minute and a half to go, the Rangers were called for the games first penalty as Drew Fortescue interfered with Arseny Gritsyuk. The Rangers would hold off the Devils powerplay to keep things locked at zero after the opening twenty. Shots heading into intermission were 10-3 in the Devils favor. 

Second Period 

The Devils made a goaltending change to start the second as Nico Daws took over in net, giving Jake Allen the rest of the night off. The Rangers fought off the remainder of the penalty to Fortescue to bring play back to full strength. Alas, the ice was still tilted in the Devils favor. Despite adding a couple more shots on goal to their side of the count, the Rangers were spending more time chasing the play. Understandable given the the fact it was essentially the Devils taking on the Hartford Wolf Pack. 

With about eight minutes to go in the second, the Devils were finally able to crack Dylan Garand who had been excellent all throughout the outing. Nico Hischier caught a rolling puck that took some fortunate bounces on its way past Garand, 1-0 Devils.  

The lead would only hold for about four minutes as Anton Blidh would sneak a shot past Daws with just under four to go in the period. A great long pass from Dennis Cholowski in the defensive zone found Liam Greentree at the far blue line who made a nice play to set up the shot for Blidh to make it 1-1. 

With less than a minute to go, the Devils regained the lead as an unfortunate giveaway by Vincent Iorio behind the Rangers net created an easy wrap-around goal for Timo Meier. A bit of a weird play as no one—Garand included—was expecting the Devils to end up with the puck there as they made it a 2-1 game. Worth noting, it looked like Iorio took a stick in a very uncomfortable place and would not return in the third period.

That would do it for the second stanza as the Rangers trailed by one heading into the final period of regulation. Shots now were 22-12 in the Devils favor.

Third Period 

Garand returned to the Rangers' crease to start the third period as he would get the full start in this first game. He remained sharp throughout the period as the Devils continued to keep him busy.

About seven minutes in, not long after Scott Morrow nearly tied it on a nice individual effort, Drew Fortescue let a shot go through traffic to find the back of the net, tying the game up 2-2.

With just over ten minutes to go in the third, Gritsyuk was called for hooking which sent the Rangers to their first power play of the night. Scott Morrow would quarterback the top unit with Liam Greentree, Brody Lamb, Justin Dowling and Glenn Gawdin. The second unit would be Cholowski with Jacob Battaglia, Matt Rempe, Nathan Aspinall, and Dylan Roobroeck.

Neither unit would get much done and the Devils saw the best chance as Cholowski blew a tire to send Jesper Boqvist on a breakaway.

In the final three minutes of regulation, the Devils turned it up a notch and what has potential to be a top line in Hartford this season got caught in the Rangers end of the ice for an extended shift. After an icing call and more puck chasing, Jack Hughes worked the puck in close and snuck it past Garand to make it 3-2.

The Rangers would pull Garand shortly after and utilized their timeout with 51 seconds to go after the Devils iced the puck. The Rangers did a good job of staying alive but couldn't tie it back up. All things considered, a great effort from this young Rangers lineup who held their own against most of the Devils' regulars. Garand finished the night with 28 saves.

The Rangers will be right back at it tomorrow as they're set to host the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden. Likely, with much closer to an NHL lineup.