Rangers De-Tusk the Mammoth at The Garden

By Daniel Feuerstein | New York, NY | October 4th, 2026

After dropping their season opener in Boston against the Bruins, the New York Rangers are now on a three-game winning streak as their next opponent on an early Sunday evening will be Vincent Trocheck and the Utah Mammoth at Madison Square Garden. It was a tight defensive game, but when the Blueshirts scored timely goals, they were able to take the victory back to their locker room as they took down those Woolly Elephants by the final score of 4-2.

Gavrikov does it again

The play began inside the Mammoth zone as the puck was along the far boards. The Rangers were trying to continue the play, but for Tye Kartye, he got nudged down a bit from behind, and the puck was taken from him by the defense and made an attempt to clear. Adam Fox found a way to stop the clearing attempt by sticking his blade out and created a slight deflection that went to his defensive partner, Vladislav Gavrikov. Just inside the blue line, Gavrikov sent a wrist shot straight on goal, and it went right through Karel Vejmelka at 17:18 of the first period.

Mammoth tied it up

The Rangers have been strong with their penalty killing in their first three games, stopping all ten opponents’ power plays before facing the Mammoth. In this current game, the Rangers killed off the Mammoth’s first power play, making it 11 successful penalty kills till the 12th one finally broke the streak. Logan Cooley was given the puck and went on a breakaway, as he got close to take the shot and was stopped by Igor Shesterkin, but the Mammoth got the rebound and continued to make plays inside the Rangers’ zone. After digging the puck out of the far corner, the pass was made to Clayton Keller, who took a shot and was stopped, got the rebound, and found Nick Schmaltz, who scored on the power play at 14:29 of the second period.

Perreault retakes the lead

The Rangers were starting the third period looking to regain the lead and did so on some fantastic passing and hustle from their future star. As the puck was inside their zone and along the far boards, Gabe Perreault started the play by getting the loose puck and made a strong pass to Mika Zibanejad and started a two-on-one down the far side. A hard pass to Alexis Lafreniere, who ripped a hard shot that was saved by Vejmelka, but he left a big rebound for Perreault, who scored into the open net at 3:15 of the third period.

The Captain finally gets one

Since Tye Kartye was picked up off waivers from the Seattle Kraken, he has been hustling all over the ice and looking to make plays. He did it again by hounding the defender along the far boards and digging the puck away from them. He did get a handle on the puck and passed it down low to J.T. Miller, then he passed it back to Gavrikov out at the point. Gavrikov, who scored from distance in the first period, tried his luck in the third with the same shot, but this time Miller was in front of the net, and the puck struck him and deflected past Vejmelka to make it a two-goal game at 12:47 of the third period.

The Mammoth cut the deficit to one

Bad communication behind the Rangers’ net as Shesterkin tried to leave the puck for his defenseman, and the play was intercepted by Anders Lee. The defense came back to try to strip the puck off of Lee’s stick, but he kept possession and fought off the Rangers. He skated from the far side to the near side behind the net and made a quick pass back to the top of the near faceoff circle to Andrew Peeke. When Peeke got the puck, he took a quick snapshot and beat Shesterkin through a screen to cut the deficit at 14:57 of the third period.

Empty-netter and a point streak for Igor

As the Mammoth pulled Vejmelka for the extra skater, the Garden buzzed, hoping Igor Shesterkin would take another shot at the empty net for his second career goal. The puck was dumped into the Rangers’ zone. Shesterkin came out of his crease to play it, and faked everyone out as he passed the puck toward Will Cuylle at the near side. Cuylle tried for the empty net, but his stick was blocked; Eeli Tolvanen trailed the play and got the puck, firing it into the empty net for his third of the season on a three-game goal-scoring streak at 18:45 of the third period. For Shesterkin, he’s on a two-game point streak with a goal and now an assist.

“I just like how we’re coming together as a group, I think, and I think that’s just, you know, an example of, you know, just how we’re coming together as a team, you know, it’s a good feeling we have, you know, we’ve won a couple of games; these guys are playing hard, they’re paying the price to win, whether it be blocking shots or… you know, winning puck battles, things of that nature. But I’m really excited and couldn’t be more proud of the guys just for the team game that we’re building. And I think as part of that is just the chemistry inside our locker room that continues to grow and evolve,” said Mike Sullivan

Vincent Trocheck returns

After being traded during the offseason to the Utah Mammoth, Vincent Trocheck’s Rangers highlights were shown on Garden Vision. Then the camera was positioned at the Mammoth’s bench, and Trocheck was shown on the screen. The fans gave him a round of applause, and Trocheck stood up and thanked the Rangers fans for their dedication to his play for the hockey club. He stood up and waved to the fans.

KEEPING THE POINTS COMING – The Rangers have won three straight games and each of their two games at The Garden. Through 12 periods of play this season, the Blueshirts have led or been tied after 11 of them and have allowed a goal in only four of those 12 periods. New York leads the league with six points, and their 11 goals scored are the sixth-most in the NHL.

POINT STREAKS – Eeli Tolvanen extended his goal streak to three-straight games, currently the longest active streak in the league. Adam Fox and Gabe Perreault extended their point streaks to three straight games, both tied for the longest active point streaks in the NHL (Fox: 4A, Perreault: 2G-1A). Will Cuylle, Tye Kartye, and Igor Shesterkin all extended their point streaks to two straight games (Cuylle: 2A, Kartye: 2A, Shesterkin: 1G-1A).

IGOR SHESTERKIN: Has earned a win and tallied a point in back-to-back games. Notching an assist on Tolvanen’s goal, he became the third Rangers goaltender in franchise history to have notched the feat and the first since 2010-11 (Henrik Lundqvist).

VLADISLAV GAVRIKOV: Scored his first goal and notched his first multi-point game (1G-1A) of the season.

MIKA ZIBANEJAD: Tallied an assist on Perreault’s go-ahead goal. It was the 134th time he has done so with the Rangers, surpassing Mark Messier for the sixth-most in franchise history.

J.T. MILLER: Scored his first goal of the season.

ALEXIS LAFRENIERE: Recorded his first assist of the season.

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