As they began the post-All-Star break portion of their schedule Monday at Madison Square Garden against the visiting Calgary Flames, the Rangers were gearing up for a playoff push that will see them play 33 games in 67 days to close out the season.
The game had a little bit of everything, goals, goaltending, three fights – two by Jacob Trouba – and a large dose of controversy. But in the end, it was Alexis Lafreniere who won it for the Rangers, winning the race to collect the rebound of a shot by Mika Zibanejad and shooting it into a vacated net at 1:37 of the overtime to give the Rangers a thrilling, 5-4 victory.
Zibanejad’s second goal of the game at 12:55 of the game forced the overtime, but not before the Rangers were forced to kill a tripping penalty to Vincent Trocheck with 2:41 remaining.
