SALT LAKE CITY — At the end of the 2024-25 regular season, this three-game road trip could be a difference-maker for the Rangers.
Picking up five of a possible six points out west, after taking a 5-3 win over Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night at Delta Center, the Blueshirts have not only injected life back into their game, but they’ve done so against some notable competition.
“We’re still frustrated about the one we lost,” head coach Peter Laviolette said with a smile. “It was a good road trip. Even going back prior, I think we’ve been playing some good hockey. We’ve just got to continue to do that. We’ve got to remember what’s gotten us here. We’ve got to take that into every game, that mindset of what works for us right now. If we can do that, then we’re going to get a chance.”
There was a lot to like about a total team effort in the 2-1 win in Vegas.
Despite an overtime defeat at the hands of a hot Avalanche team in Denver, the Rangers put forth one of their better defensive efforts of the season.
The victory in their first game in Utah, however, was one they probably wouldn’t have come out on top of a month ago.
It required several counterpunches, a defensive diligence to contain their opponent’s speed and a killer third period to put the game away.
So the Rangers did. It pushed them back over .500. They are now in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division.
“We’re going to be playing hard teams for the rest of the season,” said Reilly Smith, whose shorthanded goal 28 seconds into the third period tied the game at 3-3. “Obviously, the first one in Vegas was important. That’s a tough team to beat. Move on to Colorado and even just picking up one point there was important. We got ourselves off to a great start on this road trip and it was great to be able to cap it off this way.”
Keeping close with Utah all game, the Rangers then took it to the home team in the final 20 minutes with two goals and an Artemi Panarin empty-netter, which gave the star Russian wing two goals on the night.
The Rangers had to start the third period on the penalty kill, but they still managed to knot the game at 3-3. Braden Schneider launched the puck up to Smith, who sniped one from the top of the left circle 28 seconds into the period for his ninth goal of the season.
Chris Kreider then collected the puck off a Rangers faceoff win and snapped it in, notching what was ultimately the game-winner and jumping into the corner boards to celebrate.
“He was one of our most noticeable players,” Laviolette said of Kreider, who had a shaky game against the Avs in his return from injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
After responding to each of Utah’s two goals through the opening 20 minutes, the Rangers were forced to start the middle frame shorthanded after Arthur Kaliyev was called for high sticking at the tail end of the first.
It allowed Logan Cooley to go five-hole on Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin for the 3-2 lead and the only goal of the second period just 57 seconds in. This after the Rangers gave up the first goal of the game just a tick of a minute after the puck was dropped.
But the Blueshirts always had an answer for Utah, which got two goals from Matias Maccelli in the first period.
Panarin’s bar-down shot made it a 1-1 game before Kaliyev swooped in a pushed in a puck that trickled through Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka — off a Filip Chytil shot — for his first goal and point of the season, as well as his first as a Ranger, to make it 2-all toward the end of the opening frame.
“It’s big,” Ryan Lindgren said. “I think we’ve been playing a better brand of hockey this last little bit here. It’s starting to show a little bit more. We’ve played some really good teams and to come away with five out of six points was big. Just got to keep it rolling.”
