Recap: Panarin Ends Home Scoring Drought, But Rangers Still Fall to Wild 3-1

Back on home ice after a two game tour through Eastern Canada, the New York Rangers played host to the Minnesota Wild for their first of eight Centennial Nights this season, celebrating the team's 100th anniversary. For any fans attending or looking to attend one of these themed games this season, it appears each of them will include a commemorative ticket specific to the theme of the night. With tonight’s game celebrating the birth of the franchise, the Rangers also distributed special newspapers to fans prior to the game. 

There was one change to the lineup tonight as Carson Soucy has returned from IR and slotted back in the lineup in place of Urho Vaakanainen. 

First Period

It only took 57 seconds for the Rangers to put an end to their goalscoring drought on home ice. A clean breakout led by Matthew Robertson resulted in a beautiful passing play involving everyone on the ice. Once the puck was deep in Minnesota’s end, Mika Zibanejad was able to pick up the puck and find Artemi Panarin breaking to the net to let a quick shot go over the glove of Filip Gustavsson. It only took four games, but the Rangers had a goal to show for at the World’s Most Famous Arena, 1-0 game. 

About four minutes later, the Wild were able to tie things up. A clean face-off win by Joel Eriksson-Ek got the puck over to Jonas Brodin whose deflected shot was able to beat Igor Shesterkin.  

That became quite the momentum shifter as the Wild spent a large portion of the next five minutes in the Rangers end of the ice. At the end of a particularly long shift that kept the Miller line out there for about a minute and a half, a deflected shot from David Jirieck resulted in an errant puck that was batted in by Vinnie Hinostraza. The goal was immediately waved off as the stick was clearly above the crossbar. 

The score would remain 1-1 but the shots on goal were 13-2 in Minnesota’s favor just twelve minutes in. 

It was quickly becoming Minnesota’s period as they hemmed the Rangers in their own end of the ice for another lengthy stretch, this time going on for two and a half minutes. That shift only came to an end because the Rangers sent the puck over the glass which sent Will Borgen to the box for the first penalty of the game. 

The Rangers were successful in killing off the man advantage but really didn’t amount to much for the rest of the period. If it wasn’t for a massive hit from Braden Schneider on Marcus Foligno, the Garden crowd wouldn’t have much to cheer for as the Rangers were outshot 17-6 through the opening twenty.

On top of that, the Rangers blocked eleven shots meaning the Wild were pushing thirty shot attempts. They were credited with 22 scoring chances and seven high danger chances to the Rangers one. Yes, Igor Shesterkin is worth every penny. 

Second Period

It was much of the same for the Wild through the first few minutes as Foligno nearly gave his team the lead. A nice feed from Ryan Hartman on a 2-on-1 found Foligno all alone requiring a big save from Shesterkin. Shortly after, a bit of a scare would occur as a shot from Kirill Kaprizov shattered the plastic neck protector of Shesterkin’s helmet. It looked like a piece of it may have cut Shesterkin’s cheek a bit but otherwise appeared to be okay. The helmet on the other hand, would be replaced. 

Just over five minutes in, the Rangers were back to the penalty kill as Alexis Lafrenière was called for hooking against Matt Boldy. Another scary moment came on the kill as Noah Laba would take a puck up high and require assistance getting off the ice. 

Laba would return later in the period with a full face shield and a brutal gash on his lower lip. 

Just over the midway point of the game, shots were 26-13 Minnesota with the Rangers slowly working their way back into things, spending more time in the offensive zone. Certainly an encouraging sign however Minnesota was back to the power play with just under three minutes to go in the period as Will Cuylle was tied up with former friend Vladimir Tarasenko near the benches. Not sure why it wasn’t coincidental minors but I suppose Tarasenko got the veteran benefit of the doubt there. 

The Rangers would advance to 3-0 on the penalty kill with some help from Vladislav Gavrikov who also ended up taking a puck to the face, thankfully one that was slowed down significantly compared to the one Laba took. Shots after two were 28-17 Minnesota in what was a much closer period than the first. 

Third Period

The Rangers finally drew a Minnesota penalty just over three minutes into the third as Keaton Middleton was called for hooking Conor Sheary. This sent the Rangers top power play unit out there who had a couple decent looks but was otherwise ineffective.

Nearing the midway point of the third, play was blown dead after the officials felt the puck made contact with the Rangers' bench. Although, it looked like it hit the linesman more than anything. This resulted in a defensive zone face-off for the Rangers and sure enough, Danila Yurov was able to poke a lo0se puck home following a wrap around attempt from Marcus Johansson. You'll never guess it, but that's the first career goal for Yurov as the Wild took a 2-1 lead on the game.

The Rangers had a great chance to tie the game back up shortly after but Gustavsson robbed Zibanejad following a perfect feed from Panarin. That mixed with the go ahead goal seemingly took all the energy out of this one as the Rangers struggled to generate much in the minutes that followed.

As time began to run down, Mike Sullivan was stacking his top line putting J.T. Miller with Zibanejad and Panarin in place of Will Cuylle. With about a minute and a half left to go, the Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker and almost immediately, Kaprizov sent the puck into the empty net to make it a 3-1 game.

The Rangers really struggled to get the zone and in a position to pull Shesterkin in the first place. Just prior to it, they gave up an odd-man rush that was broken up by a phenomenal backcheck from Matt Rempe who had a really good game overall. They pulled Shesterkin a second time but it wouldn't matter. The Rangers ran out of gas and the Wild held on to their lead to secure the win.

Final tally on shots would be 32-23 Minnesota as the Rangers fall to 3-4-1 on the season, still winless on home ice. They'll get another chance at it Thursday night as they'll host the San Jose Sharks.