Dylan Garand Shines in Overtime Loss at the Blue Jackets

By Daniel Feuerstein | Columbus, OH | October 17th, 2026

The New York Rangers left Newark, NJ, and headed to the Capital of Ohio to face the Columbus Blue Jackets in their next road game. This was one for the ages, as both goaltenders were remarkable with their saves and poise in their crease and tried to one-up each other in regulation. But when the Overtime period came, and the clock was ticking down for a possible shootout, it would be the Blue Jackets that edged the Rangers in the extra five-minute session as the visitors fell by a final score of 1-0.

Garand was marvelous in net

For over sixty minutes, Dylan Garand was a brick wall inside his crease. He looked calm and composed, putting his pads, blocker, and glove out to make the big saves and frustrating the Blue Jackets in their own arena. Every time he faced a big shot, he never looked flustered or looked out of place, he just worked hard to keep the puck out of the net and at times did it with no flair. He looked confident and gave his teammates multiple attempts to get on the scoreboard and win the game. Even in the overtime period, he made a nice glove save and gave a bit of a snap by flashing the glove on a point-blank shot just in front of his crease. If the Rangers thought sending him back down to Hartford was the right thing to do, well, now they know he won’t ever go back, as Garand for next season will be the backup when Igor Shesterkin returns from injury in the new year.

“I thought it was a huge response. He was solid in there.

“You know, he has a quiet confidence about him. I thought he made timely saves for us. I thought he was really good.”
Mike Sullivan on Dylan Garand’s bounceback game

The only goal of the game in the extra session

The Blue Jackets showed a lot of patience in this game, because they thought they were finally going to put one in the net in this game and take the win. Charlie Coyle entered the Rangers’ zone with the puck at the far side and went down the boards. As he reached the far corner, a quick cross-ice pass to Zach Werenski as he was inside the near faceoff circle. Coming in, trailing the play was Kent Johnson as he entered at the far point. Werenski made the pass back up top; Johnson took a big shot and finally beat Garand to get the winner at 3:29 of the overtime period.

A much better performance, but not the result

The Rangers faced a very hot goalie as well in the Blue Jackets, Jet Greaves. He made all 29 saves on the Rangers while Garand made 29 saves out of 30 shots on goal. But after the poor performance at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, falling apart from the end of the first period all the way through that game, the Rangers had a much better performance. While the goal-scoring department was lacking, their defense and penalty killing have been on point and stifling the opposition. The Rangers can feel good about themselves; they can have a performance like that every night. Now they need to get the full two points, but because they went into overtime, they earned one, and that’s good for now.

“I thought it was a hard-fought game. You know, I thought we competed hard. There were momentum shifts in the game. Sometimes we had it, sometimes they had it. I thought both goalies made some timely saves for their respective teams. It was a hard-fought game,” said Mike Sullivan

EARNING POINTS: New York has earned points in seven of their 10 games played this season (6-3-1). They rank third in the league with 13 points.

PENALTY KILLERS: The Rangers went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill tonight and have gone 29-for-31 on the penalty kill this season. They have continued to have a perfect penalty kill on the road, one of four teams to do so, and are tied for second in the league with an overall 93.5 penalty kill percentage this season.

DYLAN GARAND: Made 29 saves against the Blue Jackets tonight, having earned points in four of his five starts this season (3-1-1). Among all goaltenders in the NHL with at least five starts, Garand is tied for fifth with a .927 save percentage.

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