The Rangers didn’t have the same oomph to their five-on-five offense on Monday night, or much oomph at all through the first half of the game, but that’s what special-team opportunities are supposed to be for.
And so it was the Blueshirts’ top power-play unit that secured a 2-1 win over the Coyotes in the club’s home opener at Madison Square Garden, where a sold-out crowd of 18,006 got more and more into the game as their team did.
After whiffing on their first two power-play chances, the Rangers peppered Coyotes goalie Connor Ingram before Vincent Trocheck tipped Artemi Panarin’s shot through traffic for the go-ahead goal at 8:26 of the third period.
“He’s so good at finding those lanes,” Trocheck told The Post of Panarin’s assist on the Rangers’ third power-play goal in three games. “There were six of us, it felt like a whole bunch of us right in front of them. I wasn’t sure if it was going to get through that layer, but luckily it got through everybody and was able to find the back of the net. It was huge for us.”
A successful five-on-three penalty kill at the end of the second period sparked the Rangers and every fan clad in red, white in blue in attendance, who were in need of some momentum after the Coyotes tied it up on Clayton Keller’s power-play goal five minutes into the middle frame.
With Alexis Lafreniere in the box for a soft slashing call and Ryan Lindgren penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after he shot the puck in the net out of frustration, the MSG crowd was sure to let the referees know what they thought about the whole sequence.
Thanks to some big saves from Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin and a couple of blocks by Jacob Trouba, however, the Rangers fended off the Coyotes’ fourth power play for the final 1:19 of the middle frame and the first 41 seconds of the third.
“I think there’s no question that a penalty kill or a power play can infuse life into a player, a team, a building, a period,” head coach Peter Laviolette said after the game, which concluded with a rowdy brouhaha involving several players, including Shesterkin. “There’s no question that people are doing the right things and blocking shots, whether it be penalty kill or power play, I do think it can create a buzz.”
Shesterkin, who finished with 26 saves, bounced back from Keller’s first-period goal, which the Russian netminder barely got a piece of on its way in.
When Jason Zucker earned a penalty shot shortly after the Rangers regained the lead in the third, Shesterkin stood tall in net and made a key save.
That brought Shesterkin’s career penalty shot record to 4-for-4.
Laviolette was encouraged by the Rangers’ ability to remain patient despite the offense not clicking during five-on-five play for a majority of the game.
There may have been one too many penalties taken, but the Rangers withstood the pressure and managed to turn it around in the end.
The Rangers always want to win, Laviolette said, but it doesn’t have to be perfect three games into the season.
“We didn’t get frustrated by it,” he said. “We didn’t try to overpress, we didn’t try to go outside of our shoes. We just kept playing the game and eventually we were able to get to the right side.”
