Recap: Panarin Hat-Trick Sparks Rangers Win

The Rangers returned home in the second half of a back-to-back to host the San Jose Sharks after a big come from behind win in Nashville the night prior. This would be the first of two meetings between the two teams as the Rangers looked to pick up their third win in a row and the Sharks looked to build off their big 6-3 win in New Jersey on Friday Night. The Rangers would go into this one with some new forward lines after mixing things up the night prior:

Kreider – Zibanejad – Brodzinski

Lafrenière – Trocheck – Panarin

Cuylle – Bonino – Wheeler

Vesey – Goodrow – Pitlick

1st Period:

After a slightly slow back and forth start, former friend Anthony Duclair found himself hanging all alone in the neutral zone and an outlet pass from Kyle Burroughs sent him on a breakaway. Duclair, pulled off a nice move cutting from his forehand to backhand and back to his forehand to fake out Jonathan Quick and put his team up by one close to four minutes in.

Not long after the Sharks took the lead in this one, Jimmy Vesey took a high stick from Jacob MacDonald to give the Rangers their first power play of the night. After a really sloppy start to the power play, the Rangers came close to giving up a shorthanded goal as Mikael Granlund had a chance in front of the Rangers net that was broken up thanks to a good defensive effort from Vesey.

As the man advantage ended, the Rangers went right back to the power play as William Eklund took down Jonny Brodzinski in the Sharks own end of the ice. On a much better power play attempt, Artemiy Panarin let a shot go through traffic from the point that ripped off the post and into the net to tie the game up at one.

The Rangers almost gave up another goal from a former friend as Ryan Carpenter had a couple of chances in front to regain the sharks lead but Jonathan Quick was equal to the challenges, keeping the game tied. Sure enough, with about seven and a half minutes to go in the first, Carpenter let a shot go from the slot that beat Quick who may have been screened by K’Andre Miller in front. The Sharks now had a 2-1 lead with both goals coming from former Rangers.

34 seconds later, a nice zone entry from the second line resulted in a wrap-around attempt from Vincent Trocheck. Panarin, who went right to the front of the net was able to smack the loose puck past Mackenzie Blackwood to tie the game back up, 2-2.

Just a few minutes after tying the game, the Rangers top line went to work as Jonny Brodzinski made a nice play, batting the puck out of mid air to hold the zone. Brodzinski was able to get it over to Chris Kreider who picked up the puck behind the net and found Mika Zibanejad alone in front to put a quick shot in, making it 3-2 Rangers.

A third power play opportunity came for the Rangers after Ryan Carpenter was sent off for holding Panarin. While the Rangers wouldn’t convert on this one, their top unit was really cooking with Panarin, Zibanejad and Fox all ripping the puck from their various areas of the ice. The Sharks held the Rangers off and the score remained 3-2 in New York’s favor after twenty. Shots were 15-9 in favor of the Rangers with San Jose leading in hits and blocked shots. The Rangers had more of the high danger scoring chances and continued to dominate in the face-off circle but the Sharks took advantage of turnovers and capitalized on their big chances to keep this one close.

2nd Period:

The Rangers wasted no time getting back on their offense as a nice zone entry set up from the Panarin line resulted in a pretty good scoring chance with Trocheck redirecting a pass on the doorstep of Mackenzie Blackwood. The first half of the second period was much more low key than the start of the game but as we neared the midway mark of the game, things certainly picked up.

Jonathan Quick came up with an outstanding sprawling save on a one timer at the doorstep from Granlund. Play immediately went the other way and the Rangers came up with a big chance that was shut down by Blackwood. With twelve and a half to go, the Rangers were given their first penalty of the night as Mika Zibanejad was called for an extremely weak tripping call.

Nick Bonino had a great chance on a breakaway while the Rangers were short handed but just ran out of room on the play. As the Sharks regained the Rangers zone with time on the penalty running out, Jacob MacDonald let a slap shot go from the point that went through traffic and went in off the post to tie the game back up, now 3-3.

Just over the midway point of the game, Alexis Lafrenière was tripped up on the breakaway which resulted in the Rangers first penalty shot of the season. Lafrenière faked the backhander and cut to his forehand but Blackwood wouldn’t budge, keeping the score tied at three.

The Sharks would go back to the power play on another ridiculous call as Will Cuylle was pushed into Mackenzie Blackwood and called for goaltender interference. The Rangers were able to kill the man advantage despite Anthony Duclair nearly picking up his second of the night as he rang one off the crossbar just as the penalty expired.

With just under four minutes to go, K’Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba did a great job of breaking the puck out and got it up to Nick Bonino in the neutral zone. Bonino chipped it ahead to Will Cuylle who took the puck in for a breakaway and let a quick shot go that found the back of the net to regain the lead, 4-3.

After two periods of play, the Rangers had the lead and continued to outshoot the Sharks 31-19. Not a ton of defense throughout this one as there were plenty of breakaways and plays where both goaltenders needed to come up with borderline desperate saves. The Rangers continued winning the majority of the face-offs and the Sharks were still out-hitting and out-blocking the Blueshirts.

3rd Period:

About five minutes into the final period of regulation, K’Andre Miller did a great job of poking at the puck as the Sharks were looking to carry it out of their zone. However, it was Jonny Brodzinski who stepped up and came in flying to keep the play going and as both Trocheck and Panarin went to the net, it was Artemiy Panarin capitalizing to extend the lead to 5-3 and completing his hat-trick.

Artemiy Panarin is obviously the big storyline here having a hat-trick on the night but Jonny Brodzinski now has his second multi-point game in a row as he really has been a great addition to this lineup since Kaapo Kakko went down with injury.

The breakaway chances continued as Chris Kreider found himself all alone, ripping a shot off the post as the Rangers offense continued to push. About ten minutes after Panarin completed his hat-trick, he made a couple of incredible defensive efforts in the offensive zone to keep the puck in play and managed to make a perfect pass across the zone to K’Andre Miller. Miller then took the puck in on his off side and let a mean wrist shot go, sniping it past Mackenzie Blackwood to make it 6-3.

At that point, it seemed like it was the Rangers game to close out but the Sharks don’t seem to go down without a fight. A minute and a half after Miller’s goal, Fabian Zetterlund put home a rebound to get his team’s offense going once again. About a minute later, a great zone entry from the Sharks resulted in Calen Addision finding Alexander Barabanov cutting to the side of the net where he was able to direct the puck past Quick to make it a 6-5 game.

Peter Laviolette utilized his time out and with two minutes to go, the Sharks pulled Blackwood for the extra attacker. After the Rangers iced the puck, San Jose used their time out but they wouldn’t be able to get much generated in the final minutes. The Rangers cleared the zone for the final time and would skate away with their second win of the weekend, getting back on track with a three game win streak. Much like last night, it wasn’t a perfect showing but the Rangers took care of business and managed to pick up another pair of points to close out an exciting weekend.

Final tally on shots would be 36-28 in New York’s favor, finishing with a 54% success rate on face-offs, going 1-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill. The Rangers advance to 18-4-1 on the season as they will head to Ottawa to take on the Senators Tuesday Night.