Recap: Raddysh Nets Hat Trick but Rangers Fall 6-5 to Sharks in OT

It was bound to be a noteworthy night for one of the two teams playing in this one tonight. The New York Rangers, who have yet to win a game on home ice this season hosted the San Jose Sharks who haven’t won a game at all this season. With one of those things sure to change, the Rangers tweaked their lines a bit, putting Alexis Lafrenière back on the line with Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin and Matt Rempe bumping up to the third line, pushing Taylor Raddysh down to the fourth. 

First Period

Abysmal start for the Rangers who spent the entire opening two minutes hemmed in their own end of the ice. After a shift full of reaching for the puck, Collin Graf fed a white open Adam Gaudette a pass in front the net, allowing him to pick up his 100th career point to make it a 1-0 game early. Certainly didn’t help that Vladislav Gavrikov was caught out there for the entirety of those two minutes. 

Just three minutes later, after some conversation at the faceoff circle, Ryan Reaves laid a big hit on Jusso Parssinen which resulted in Matt Rempe dropping the gloves with the former friend. The two had a bit of a staged fight during Rempe’s rookie tour when he was fighting every other night that didn’t really go in his favor. This time around, Rempe really hung in there as the two had a serious battle for close to a minute. 

That fight got the Rangers and the crowd going yet the team responded by giving up an odd-man rush and taking the first minor penalty of the game as Adam Fox went off for hooking. Just six seconds into the power play, a shot from the point took the craziest route, hitting the leg of Macklin Celebrini, another shin pad and the broken stick of Matthew Robertson to eventually find the back of the net. 2-0 Sharks. 

The Rangers had a chance soon after as Lafrenière led an odd-man rush, hitting a post in the process. After killing the penalty off, the Rangers got a chance on the power play as Timothy Liljegren sent the puck over the glass. A golden opportunity for this team to regain some momentum and get on the board but again, they over-passed the puck, couldn’t connect and the score stayed the same through the first half of the period. 

With just under six minutes to go, a great zone entry from Sam Carrick generated some zone time for the Rangers fourth line. Taylor Raddysh would end up with the puck at the point where his shot went off the shin pad of Vincent Desharnais to bring the Rangers within one, 2-1 game. Huge night for shin pads. 

Three minutes later, Will Smith headed to the penalty box as he was called for slashing. It was much of the same for the Rangers power play as they just couldn’t find a way to connect on anything. With eight seconds to go in the period, Celebrini picked up his second of the night after the Rangers failed to clear the zone. As Dave Maloney said on the broadcast, it was a period that started badly and ended badly. Shots after the opening twenty were 9-5 San Jose and to make things worse, the Rangers were down a player as Rempe did not return following the big fight with Reaves. 

Second Period

The Rangers would be shorthanded for the rest of this one as it was announced that Rempe would not return to tonight’s action. 

Just over a minute in, the Rangers were back to the penalty kill as Lafrenière was called for high sticking. Able to come out of it unscathed, the Rangers would return to the power play soon after as Ty Dellandrea was called for holding Fox along the boards. Third time indeed became the charm as Lafrenière made a great pass to Zibanejad at the door step to fire a one timer home, making it a 3-2 game. 

It wasn’t long before the Rangers tied the game. A nice pass from Conor Sheary set up Parssinen in the slot who pulled off a nice little move to move around Alex Nedeljkovic, knotting this one up 3-3.  

As the period went on, the Rangers were playing much better hockey. Leading up to the midway point of the period, they were dictating play, spending more time in the Sharks end of the ice. However, it was back to the penalty kill with eight minutes to go as Robertson was called for interference. That ended up working in their favor as Taylor Raddysh picked up his second of the night on an odd-man rush with Zibanejad. Raddysh did a great job of picking the puck off at the point and despite having Zibanejad wide open on the rush, Raddysh opted for the shot to give his team their first lead of the night. 

All was well until the final seconds of the period. The Rangers got stuck in their own end of the ice once again and Celebrini was left all alone in the slot. The former first overall draft pick was able to fire another laser of a shot to the back of the net, securing his second career hat-trick. That was also his second goal of the night that came in the final ten seconds of the period. Tie game 4-4 heading into the second intermission. The Rangers had out-shot the Sharks 14-10 in the second with seven of the Sharks shots coming towards the end of the period. 

Third Period

The Rangers got an early power play to start the third as Desharnais took the second delay of game penalty of the night for the Sharks. Once the Rangers were finally able to generate some offensive zone pressure, they put together a couple solid scoring chances. However, the Sharks killed off the man advantage and were soon on a 5-on-3 power play as a result of a pair of stick infractions from Cuylle and Raddysh.

For the most part, the Rangers did a great job on the penalty kill with some help from Igor Shesterkin and the post. However just as the first of the two penalties expired, Will Smith picked up a rebound right in the blue paint to find the back of the net, regaining San Jose's lead now 5-4.

In the midst of a line change with close to eight minutes to go, Taylor Raddysh hopped on the ice and let a slap shot go from the left face-off circle that sailed right past Nedelkjovic to complete the hat-trick and tie the game up 5-5. That too was the second career hat-trick for Raddysh who against all odds, is now the leading goal scorer of the New York Rangers.

Things settled down a bit through the rest of the period as this one was just destined to be decided in overtime. Despite icing the puck with seven seconds to go, the Rangers managed not to give up another goal in the dying seconds of the period as the score was tied at five with shots 26-23 in the Rangers favor.

Overtime

The Rangers opened overtime with their usual suspects in Zibanejad, Panarin and Fox. After a minute of passing the puck around, the Rangers went for a change, their only shot on goal came from Igor Shesterkin, yes, you read that correctly as soon after, Celebrini dished it over to Smith for a one timer to call game. The Rangers pick up a point but remain winless at home and gave the Sharks their first win of the season.

The Rangers are back at it on the road as they set off on a Western Canada road trip Saturday Night in Calgary.