Rangers Finally Win at Home, Score Six Goals in Victory over Predators

The nightmare at the Garden has ended.

New York, NY- The New York Rangers returned to Madison Square Garden as they wanted to end this jinx of no wins at home. Calling up Gabe Perreault from the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL, and the return of Vincent Trocheck from injury, the Rangers took on the Nashville Predators. They finally broke through and earned their first home win of the season by a final score of six to three.

Mika splits the defenders and scores

The Rangers opened the scoring when Vladislav Gavrikov got the puck at center ice and gave it to Mika Zibanejad. He gave it to Adam Fox, who was behind his blue line, and delivered a quick, hard pass to Zibanejad going down the slot, and made the move to go to his forehand, lift the puck over the pad, and scored at 10:39 of the first period.

Gavrikov from the point

The game was tied at 1, and the Rangers entered the Predators’ zone and started working. Fox, down low near the corner, made a pass back to Vincent Trocheck, who redirected the puck toward Gavrikov. He just took a wrist shot on the net and scored at 18:07 of the first period.

A Power Play Goal and a helper for Perreault

The Rangers went to work on the power play, and it was the second unit that got it started. Trocheck skated down the middle of the ice, made the pass to Gabe Perreault at the far boards, then slipped a pass toward a streaking Alexis Lafreniere, who made a move and slid the puck under the pads at 1:23 of the second period.

Panarin woke up

The Rangers kept pouring it on. Urho Vaakanainen gave the puck to Lafreniere, then skated toward the front of the crease to create a screen. Lafreniere skated along the near boards toward the near point. Saw Artemi Panarin at the far point, passed the puck to him, and Panarin, with a big slapshot, blasted it in the net at 7:51 of the second period.

Cool Cuylle puts in number five

Many thought the Rangers were done inside the second period, but not so, when they skated on a three-on-two. Lafreniere attacked down the middle, gave the puck to Noah Laba, then a cross-ice pass to Will Cuylle, who snapped it home and gave the Rangers a four-goal cushion at 19:50 of the second period.

A bit of luck for Panarin’s second of the game

The Rangers dumped the puck into the Predators’ zone from the far side. The puck rimmed around the boards toward Trocheck, who left the puck for Panarin at the near corner. Somehow, Panarin found a way to bank the puck off the right pad and or skate off the goaltender, and it went in for his second of the game at 13:30 of the third period.

A Predators Hat Trick wasn’t that dangerous, and a better performance

The Predators weren’t at their top level in this game as the Rangers took care of business. Matthew Wood scored a hat trick in this game, but the last two goals came in the third period. But this was the type of game the Rangers needed to finally get the monkey off their backs and earn their first home win of the season.

Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves out of 30 shots on goal, Gabe Perreault finally gets his chance at the big club, and the Rangers, who looked out of sorts at home in their first seven games, celebrated a home win at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

“Huge, I think it’s obviously, couldn’t be happier for the group. You know they’ve been they’ve been pressing for this for a number of games now. And you know I said to him this morning that. That’s going to be our challenge tonight is we’ve got to embrace it and make sure that we help each other through this process.

I thought the guys did a great job. We didn’t try to do too much. I thought we defended hard. We took what the game gave us. I thought for the first two periods it was a pretty solid game. I thought we would have liked a little bit of a cleaner third period, maybe not go to the penalty box as much. It would have been better for the coaching staff if it were less eventful, but I couldn’t be happier for the group, though,” said Head Coach Mike Sullivan

MULTI-POINT MAYHEM: Five different Rangers collected multi-point games against the Predators (Alexis Lafreniere – 3, Vincent Trocheck – 2, Vladislav Gavrikov – 2, Adam Fox – 2, Artemi Panarin – 2).

GOAL SCORING WINNERS: This season, whenever Will Cuylle (4-0-0), Vladislav Gavrikov (2-0-0), or Alexis Lafreniere (3-0-0) have scored a goal, the Rangers have earned a victory. Every game in which Lafreniere (3-0-0), Adam Fox (5-0-0), or Artemi Panarin (3-0-0) notched a multi-point game, the Rangers have come away with a win.

ADAM FOX: Recorded his fifth multi-point game of the season and his 29th career multi-assist period, passing Brad Park (28) for the third most among Rangers defenseman. Fox leads the Rangers in assists (10) and points (13).

MIKA ZIBANEJAD: opened scoring for the Blueshirts with his fifth goal of the season, tying for the lead in goals among Rangers skaters.

ARTEMI PANARIN: Recorded his first multi-goal game of the season and his third game with three or more points. He has six points in his last three games and is tied for the Rangers’ lead in goals (5)

ALEXIS LAFRENIERE: Scored his first power play goal of the season, notched his fourth career three-point game (last Mar. 30, 2024 at CAR), and recorded his first career three-point period. Lafreniere has collected five points in his last three games and has points in six of his last eight games.

GABE PERREAULT: made his season debut with the Rangers and tallied his first career NHL point on Alexis Lafreniere’s power play goal.

VINCENT TROCHECK: Returned to the ice after missing 14 games due to injury and recorded his first multi-point game of the season.

VLADISLAV GAVRIKOV: Notched his first multi-point game as a Ranger.

New York Rangers News:

• Rangers Call Up Gabe Perreault from Hartford
• Milestones and Moments Night at Madison Square Garden
• Rangers Shutout Again and lost to the Islanders, Losses in First Seven Straight

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