COLUMBUS, Ohio – Apparently, the Rangers learned their lesson Sunday after their stunning loss to the lowly Montreal Canadiens.
One night later, facing a Columbus Blue Jackets team that sits last in the Eastern Conference and entered the game tied for the second-fewest points in the league and near the top of the Conor Bedard Sweepstakes, the Rangers went to work with purpose and put the Blue Jackets away early, building a three-goal lead through the first two periods and holding on in the third to come away with a 3-1 victory at Nationwide Arena.
Mika Zibanejad 20th goal of the season, making him the sixth Ranger to record six consecutive 20-goal seasons. Filip Chytil, who set up Vitali Kravtsov’s goal that gave the Rangers a 3-0 lead in the second period, established a new career high in points, with his 12th assist and 24th point of the season. And Barclay Goodrow’s power play goal in the first period was the Rangers’ first power play goal in five games, and broke a string of 13 consecutive power play failures.
Jaroslav Halak got the start in goal in the second night of the back-to-back and was solid in making 22 saves to improve his record to 5-6-1. It was his fourth straight win and fifth in his last six starts.
Columbus, which was thoroughly outplayed over the first two periods, came out strong in the third and gave the Rangers a scare, getting on the board with a four-on-four goal by defenseman Andrew Peeke 1:21 into the period, but the Rangers managed to hold on to win their sixth goal in the last nine (6-1-2).
Before the game, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant was asked what about the 13-27-2 Blue Jackets concerned him.
“Well, they’ve got skill and talent,’’ he said. “And you know, every team's dangerous. We found that out last night against Montreal. They're in the bottom of the standings, Montreal, but they come in our building and played a good game and deserved to beat us last night. So we’ve got to play our best game if we're going to beat anybody in this league.’’
Despite going on the ice in the morning with the extra players, Halak got the start after Igor Shesterkin had played Sunday in the front end of the back-to-back. The 37-year-old had won his last three starts, and four of his last five, but played perhaps his worst game of the season in his second start, on Oct. 23, in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden.
But Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said that despite an 0-5-1 start, Halak never needed to prove anything to him in regards to his ability to play and help the team.
“I was confident in the guy,’’ Gallant said. “He's played a long career… It took him a little bit to get going with a new team, but he's been great and that's what we signed him for this summer. He's a reliable guy that can play a lot of games and win games for us.’’
Halak didn’t have much work to do in the first period, as the Rangers outshot the Blue Jackets 13-4 and scored the only two goals, the first by Zibanejad, on a pinpoint shot on a four-on-four at 12:39. The second came on a power play, with 57.8 seconds remaining, when Goodrow tipped in a K’Andre Miller shot. That came on the Rangers’ third power play og the game and ended the drought. Kaapo Kakko assisted on both goals.
The lead stretched to 3-0 on Kravtsov’s third goal of the season, as the rookie crashed the net and jammed in a pass from Chytil at 11:47.
