VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Rangers continue to flex their strength on the road this season.
Coming off an extremely humdrum and low-event matchup in Seattle, the Rangers were entrenched in an abundance of action Tuesday night in an evenly matched contest against the Canucks that saw the visitors power through to a 4-3 victory.
It was an energetic game, featuring some entertaining hockey, and the Blueshirts came out on the winning end to improve their away record to 7-1-0.
“I thought as a team, we played really well,” Will Cuylle said after notching his fourth multipoint game of the season with a goal and an assist, which tied the 22-year-old with Artemi Panarin for the most five-on-five points on the team. “The game was close, but I thought for the majority of the game we were controlling the play, were getting lots of chances, couple bounces here and there.”
After the two teams continued trading off goals in the middle frame to carry a 3-3 score into the third period, the Rangers broke it open at the 10:43 mark on a goal from Chris Kreider.
The chemistry between Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith has steadily come along, with this game-winning play serving as the latest example.
Zibanejad fed Smith in the high slot before the latter teed up Kreider for a short-side shot on Canucks goalie Arturs Silovs.
Despite the win, the Rangers have broken down way too early a number of times in the last three and a half weeks, over which they have given up a goal within the first minute of the game four times through 11 games.
Tuesday night was the latest, with Canucks captain Quinn Hughes crashing the middle of the ice and flipping a backhander past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin just 34 seconds after the puck was dropped.
Zibanejad, however, had some jump in his game early on to combat Vancouver’s quick score.
“In a game like this one, the speed, the attack, especially for a guy like Mika with the puck on his stick, he’s a dangerous player,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “When he attacks with that speed, attacking the net, attacking the offensive zone, to me, not only does he become dangerous, but other players on his line become dangerous. The defensemen that are adding to the rush become dangerous.
“He can push defenses back on his attack into the offensive and then either deliver pucks or look for something. He was good. The line was good.”
Getting a stick on a shot from K’Andre Miller, Zibanejad scored his third five-on-five goal of the season before finishing with two points on the night.
The Swedish center was all over the ice Tuesday, especially throughout the opening 20 minutes, setting up his linemates and pushing the pace whenever the puck was on his stick.
The Rangers had a lot of open ice in this one, and they used it to their full advantage.
Connecting on cross-ice passes and getting creative in transition, the Rangers consistently threatened on offense.
“We want to be showing our skill and utilizing that [open space],” said Adam Fox, who finished with two assists and two blocked shots in the win. “We’re trying to use that, but also take away some risk that the puck might be going the other way. It’s hard to stop when there’s movement in the O-zone and you’re going cross-seam, those are the hardest to stop.
“I think we want to get a good mix of that and a good mix of simplicity. Some of our goals were just D to D, shot, tip or a rebound goal. You want to have a nice mix of both, for sure.”
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