NEW YORK — The schedule toughened for the Rangers Thursday, when Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals came to town. But the Rangers toughened up, too, and showed the Caps, and the rest of the NHL’s East Division that they are going to be a team to be reckoned with this season.
Ryan Strome had two goals, local Long Island boy Anthony Bitetto scored his first goal in his second game as a Ranger, and goalie Igor Shesterkin was brilliant as the Rangers grabbed a lead and held on for a 4-2 win over the Caps at Madison Square Garden, their second victory in a row, and third in their last four games.
With the win, the Rangers (4-4-2) climbed out of last place in the division. Their scheduled game Saturday against the Devils has been postponed because of COVID-19 protocols, and they are off now until Monday when they host the Islanders at the Garden.
Strome’s second goal of the game, at 7:55 of the third, gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead and ended up being the winning goal, after Ovechkin scored at 11:01. The goal was his 709th, putting him into seventh place all time.
But the Rangers got an empty-net goal from Pavel Buchnevich with 26.7 seconds remaining to seal it. Artemi Panarin, who assisted on both Strome goals and tried to set Strome up for a hat trick with the empty net, assisted on Buchnevich’s goal, and finished with three assists.
The move to jettison defenseman Tony DeAngelo from the team earlier in the week has obviously forced the Rangers to reshape their defensive corps. But in a way, the move may end up changing things in the goaltending department, too.
DeAngelo was placed on waivers Sunday after reportedly getting into a fight with goaltender Alexandar Georgiev following Saturday night’s overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. And while that incident was the last straw for DeAngelo, who’d been warned by Rangers GM Jeff Gorton that he was skating on thin ice after a series of on- and off-ice transgressions, it also may have affected the short term futures of Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin, too.
Because rather than starting Georgiev Thursday, as the goalie rotation he announced late last week called for, coach David Quinn instead started Shesterkin against the Capitals.
And Shesterkin was sharp, stopping a breakaway by Ovechkin 50 seconds into the game, and stopping a bullet shot by Tom Wilson in the 10 seconds of the second period, and making a whole bunch of other great stops in the game as well.
Strome’s tip-in of Adam Fox’s shot/pass at 1:41 of the first period gave the Rangers the early lead and Bitetto’s world-class, highlight video goal put them up, 2-0 at 9:15 of the second. Bitetto had the puck on the right boards and drove along the wall, behind the net. He took a hit from ex-Ranger Carl Hagelin but kept going all the way around to the left wing, then peeled off to the middle, with the puck on his backhand, and flicked a backhander through teammate Julian Gauthier’s legs and in for his first goal as a Ranger and his first goal in more than three years.
Hagelin got the Capitals on the board with a fluky goal at 18:57 of the period though, when he drove the net and the rebound of a shot Garnet Hathaway hit him on the shin pad and popped over the catching glove of Shesterkin to make it 2-1. Then, the Caps got a golden chance to tie the game when Brett Howden was sent off for slashing with 9.2 seconds remaining in the period.
But the Rangers’ penalty kill, which had snuffed six Pittsburgh power plays in the last game Monday, killed that penalty to preserve the lead.
