Rangers snag thrilling win over Devils thanks to Sam Carrick’s OT goal
After falling in overtime to Dallas in their previous game, the Rangers came through with a much-needed 3-2 win in overtime over the Devils on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers were looking for some redemption against their rivals from New Jersey after being outscored 10-1 by the Devils in their previous two meetings.
They got it on Sam Carrick’s game-winner with 2:12 to go in OT off a feed from Reilly Smith.
Mika Zibanejad had a chance to win it earlier in OT, but couldn’t get off a good shot on a breakaway midway through the period.
The victory helped make up for a pair of ugly defeats to the Devils, the most recent of which was followed by the Devils mocking the Rangers on social media, comparing the Blueshirts to a dumpster fire.
With Igor Shersterkin back in net after missing the prior four games with an upper-body injury, the Rangers put up a much better fight on Thursday.
They entered having dropped 11 of their previous 15 games, as well as 17 of 23, while the Devils had lost four of five.
The Rangers took the lead at 12:05 in the first period thanks to a power-play goal from Adam Fox, who wound up and fired it past Jacob Markstrom.
It was Fox’s first non-empty-net goal of the season and came off a faceoff win by Vincent Trocheck.
Shesterkin was strong, making 11 saves in the first period, although the Devils nearly took an early lead when Nico Hischier deflected a Luke Hughes shot and it got by Shesterkin, but hit off the crossbar.
The Rangers also killed a pair of penalties in the opening period after the Devils went 5-for-8 with the extra man in the first two meetings.
The Devils tied the game at 1-1 early in the first period when Jack Hughes scored his 16th goal of the season — and fifth in three games against the Rangers — knocking in a deflection off a shot by Brett Pesce at 4:03.
Shesterkin stopped a point-blank shot by Dawson Mercer later in the period, but Jesper Bratt beat Shesterkin at 8:28 to put the Devils up, 2-1.
That came after the Rangers blew a shorthanded breakaway that would have given them the lead midway through the second period, as Smith dropped it to Trocheck, whose shot missed the net.
The Rangers tied it at 2-2 at 17:13 of the second with their second power-play goal of the night, an Artemi Panarin goal that came off a rebound from a Zibanejad shot.
It was Panarin’s 17th goal of the season.
The Rangers had a flurry of activity in front of the Devils’ net early in the third and had the first eight shots of the period, but couldn’t capitalize.
Shesterkin stuffed Mercer on a shorthanded breakaway midway through the third.
The Devils controlled much of the action in the latter part of the third before Trocheck was stuffed late in the period.
