(FRI) RANGERS FIND A WAY TO WIN AND LOSE AT THE SAME TIME 

OFFICIAL GAME REPORTS        GOALIES
Game Summary    CGY: M. Smith (L)  NYR: O. Pavelec (ND), H. Lundqvist (W)
Event Summary

–       BROADWAY DEBUT – John Gilmour and Neal Pionk each made their NHL debut in tonight’s contest. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time two Rangers defensemen made their NHL debut in the same game prior to tonight’s contest was Oct. 2, 2009, at Pittsburgh (Michael Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy). Also according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time two Rangers players each made their NHL debut in the same contest, and the game was not the team’s first game of a season, was Nov. 21, 2007, at Tampa Bay (Ivan Baranka and Greg Moore).

–       YOUTH SERVED – Four Rangers defensemen who are all 24 years old or younger played in tonight’s game (Tony DeAngelo – 22; Neal Pionk – 22; Brady Skjei – 23; John Gilmour – 24). Prior to tonight’s contest, the last time four Blueshirts defensemen who were 24 years old or younger all played in the same game was Dec. 29, 2013 at Tampa Bay (Ryan McDonagh, John Moore, Michael Del Zotto, and Conor Allen). In addition, two Rangers defensemen who are 22 years old or younger (DeAngelo and Pionk) played in the same game for the first time since Apr. 27, 2013 vs. New Jersey (Del Zotto and Moore).

–       RANGERS ROOKIES – Five rookies have played at least one game with the Rangers this season (Boo Nieves, Filip Chytil, Daniel Catenacci, John Gilmour, and Neal Pionk).

–       HOME COOKING – The Blueshirts have earned at least one point in 17 of their last 23 home games, dating back to Oct. 26 (16-6-1 record). In addition, the Rangers have registered at least one point in 21 of 31 home games in 2017-18 (18-10-3 record).

–       POWER RANGERS – The Rangers were 2-for-5 (8:43) on the power play in tonight’s contest. The Blueshirts have tallied at least one power-play goal in six of the last nine games (8-for-28; 28.6%), in seven of the last 11 games (9-for-31; 29.0%), in eight of the last 13 contests (10-for-35; 28.6%), and in 10 of the last 17 games (12-for-47; 25.5%).

–       TEAM EFFORT – Four different Rangers registered a goal and 10 different Rangers tallied at least one point tonight.

–       FIRST IN SCORE – The Rangers tallied the first goal of the game for the third consecutive contest and for the 26th time this season. The Blueshirts have posted an 18-7-1 record when registering the first goal of the game in 2017-18.

–       COMEBACK KIDS – For the fourth time this season, the Rangers won a game when trailing entering the third period.

–       FOUR SCORE – The Blueshirts have registered four or more goals in a game (includes team goals awarded for a shootout win) in 22 of 55 games this season.

–       SHOOTING GALLERY – The Rangers recorded 36 shots on goal in tonight’s contest and established a single-period season-high with 20 shots on goal in the first period. The Blueshirts recorded at least 20 shots on goal in one period for the first time since the third period on Jan. 17, 2017 vs. Dallas (25 shots on goal).

–       Kevin Hayes tallied two points (one goal, one assist), led the Rangers with six shots on goal, won seven of 10 faceoffs (70.0%), and posted a plus-one rating 18:19 of ice time. Hayes recorded six shots on goal in the first period of tonight’s contest. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Hayes became the first Ranger to register six shots on goal in one period since Rick Nash on Feb. 16, 2015, at NY Islanders (first period). He has tallied four points (two goals, two assists) in six games since returning to the lineup on Jan. 25 at San Jose, and he has also recorded 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his last 18 games. Hayes is tied for fifth on the Rangers in goals this season (12).

–       J.T. Miller tallied two assists, both of which were primary assists, recorded a power play assist on the game-winning goal, won seven of 12 faceoffs (58.3%), and registered three shots on goal. Miller leads the Rangers in even strength assists (20) and even strength points (27) and ranks second on the team in assists (25) and points (37) in 2017-18. He has registered eight points (two goals, six assists) in the last six games and 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the last 11 contests.

–       Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves after entering the game in relief at the start of the second period, including 19 saves in the second period, to earn his 22nd win of the season and his 427th career NHL win. Lundqvist made the 12th relief appearance of his NHL career, and he earned a win in relief for the third time in his NHL career (also on Mar. 27, 2006 vs. Buffalo and on Dec. 2, 2010, at NY Islanders). In addition, his 28 saves were the most he has made in one relief appearance in his NHL career. Lundqvist made his 789th career NHL appearance in tonight’s contest, passing Gilles Meloche for sole possession of 17th place on the league’s all-time appearances list. Lundqvist also made his 789th career appearance with the Rangers in tonight’s game. Among all players (skaters and goaltenders included), Lundqvist has made the ninth-most regular season appearances as a Ranger in franchise history (he entered tonight tied with Dan Girardi).

–       Mika Zibanejad registered a power-play goal, which was the game-winning goal, recorded four shots on goal, and posted a plus-one rating. Zibanejad leads the Rangers with a career-high, eight power-play goals this season. He has recorded eight points (five goals, three assists) in the last 16 games.

–       Rick Nash recorded a goal, registered two shots on goal, and posted a plus-one rating in 19:26 of ice time. As of the conclusion of tonight’s game, Nash is tied for second in the NHL in goals since Jan. 16 (eight). He has recorded a goal/point in each of the last two games (two goals) and has registered nine points (eight goals, one assist) in the last 11 games. Nash ranks second on the Rangers in goals this season (17), and he has now tallied 798 points in his NHL career.

–       Michael Grabner registered a goal, recorded five shots on goal, and posted a plus-one rating. He leads the Rangers in goals (22) and even strength goals (21) in 2017-18.

–       Mats Zuccarello registered an assist and posted a plus-one rating in 19:21 of ice time. He has tallied seven assists/points in the last nine games, and he leads the Rangers in assists (31) and points (39) this season.

–       Brady Skjei recorded a power play assist, which was an assist on the game-winning goal, led all skaters with five blocked shots, and registered two shots on goal while skating in a team-high 26:36 of ice time. Skjei logged 10:17 of ice time in the first period of tonight’s contest. He has tallied four points (one goal, three assists) in the last eight games.

–       Tony DeAngelo recorded a power play assist and registered three shots on goal. DeAngelo has tallied three assists/points in the last eight games, and three of his four assists this season have been power play assists.

–       David Desharnais registered a power play assist and won four of six faceoffs (66.7%). He has tallied a point in two of the last three games (one goal, one assist), and he is tied for fifth on the Rangers in assists this season (18).

–       Nick Holden tallied an assist and recorded one shot on goal in tonight’s contest.

–       John Gilmour tied for the game-high with two takeaways, recorded two shots on goal, was credited with two hits, and posted a plus-one rating in 17:11 of ice time while making his NHL debut in tonight’s contest.

–       Neal Pionk tied for the game-high (and led the Rangers) with four hits, tied for the game-high with two takeaways, registered three blocked shots, and posted a plus-one rating in 18:44 of ice time while making his NHL debut.

• Alain Vigneault, New York Rangers head coach

On tonight’s win after recent struggles…

“It’s about keeping your eye on one game at a time, and that’s what our guys did tonight. We came out really strong in the first period. They got some momentum in the second on their power plays, but we were able to battle back and get a big win.” 

On if the team is playing with high emotion…

“I can’t answer for the players, but I do know for myself, and if I were a player, I would be looking at the standings, seeing that we’re three points out of the playoffs. You can be sure I’d be coming ready, coming out and working hard. I think that’s what we’ve been doing. I’ve said it a lot lately, I think we’re playing better than our record indicates, and tonight we were able to come back and get a big win. We’re very happy for the two kids (Pionk and Gilmour) that played their first game. They brought us some good energy, they played well. Now we have to follow it up next game.”

• Glen Gulutzan, Calgary Flames head coach

On what was frustrating about the loss…

“Just the way we played and the way we approached the game.  I thought we were terrible in the first and took way too many penalties.  The dumb penalty in the third with eight minutes left and they capitalized.  We got what we deserved.  We weren’t ready to play.”

On the Rangers’ chances tonight…

“The chances weren’t that high for us but I thought that the chances that they had were quality.  They had two breakaways right at the end of a power play.  We had no game awareness of the guys coming out of the box.  I thought their looks were better than ours.”

• Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers goaltender 

On tonight’s game…

“It was an important win.  It was tight at the end.  It was a game with a lot of different feels and looks to it.  The first period was outstanding with the energy and the speed.  Then Pav (Pavelec) gets hurt.  I’m not a huge fan of coming in.  I always have certain things I do going into games, so I feel a little uncomfortable in the first five, ten minutes.  I think most goalies do, but it was a lot of pucks right away.  It was a game I just had to battle, especially coming off my last performance.  I felt like don’t think too much – just play, just battle.  They were throwing a lot of pucks at the net.  In the end, a couple close calls.  We’ve been losing a lot of one-goal games, which means we are one play away, we are one save away, one goal away from getting points.  Tonight we got that goal, we got that save in the end to keep the lead.  That’s the difference a lot of times – one or two plays at the end.  Big difference in the locker room afterward.”

On how he gets himself kickstarted coming into the game…

“You try to calm down, at least personally.  You come in there with a high pulse, try to analyze what’s going on.  You’ve been a spectator for a half-hour then suddenly you’re in there and you need to have your focus.  It’s very strange.  I’m not used to it, but like I said, you come in and you battle, you don’t overthink it.  In the end, we played a really good game I think.  I loved the way the D was playing.  They were moving the puck fast and skating well.  A couple young guys coming up here and doing really well, it’s huge for us.  A lot of things to like about this game.” 

On the pride and professionalism in the locker room showing out on the ice, given the last 24 hours…

“I think the first period really set the tone for this game – what we felt and what we needed to do.  No matter what’s going on you have to continue to battle here and it’s really strange that we are so close to being in even though it feels like we’ve been losing forever.  That’s the feeling because all it takes is a couple weeks of bad playing and it’s a totally different feeling in here, but we are right there.  If we can play the way we played in big parts of this game, you never know.  Our mindset needs to be that we’re not protecting anything.  We start from zero, we try to get in.  A lot of good teams are going to miss the playoffs.  You have to stay humble about that.  You need a lot of effort to get in.”

• J.T. Miller, New York Rangers forward 

On tonight’s game…

“I think we understood the importance of that game and that we’re not out of it and that we’re still in this thing, no matter what the circumstances may be. We had some guys really step up today. I think our whole team stepped up. There were some new faces that played really well and played some strong minutes for us. That one felt really good for us for sure.” 

More on tonight’s game…

“We all have faith in each other. Maybe when it goes bad it’s easy to be negative and look at all the bad things. But at the same time, it gives us chances and moments like this to come up big. We have a lot of important people down right now so we need people to step up and we were able to get two big points.” 

On John Gilmour and Neal Pionk…

“They were awesome. I thought they made so many good plays. They’re both really good skaters, strong on their skates down low. They’re not the biggest d-men by any means but they play really big and I was impressed. I’m looking forward to what they can show in the future.”

• Mats Zuccarello, New York Rangers forward

On tonight’s game…

“It’s an emotional win for everyone in here. I thought we battled hard today, we showed some character and it was a deserved win I think.”

More on tonight’s win…

“We needed to get some confidence in the group and some positivity in here. I thought we responded well to whatever is happening lately and we played for each other. We had a really good game tonight and everyone came up strong.”

On the team’s response in the third period …

“We had some power plays against us. It’s obvious they get some momentum from that, but we defended well and didn’t give them that much and on the 5-on-5. I think everyone who played today played with good character and heart and it was a good one for us.”

• Mark Giordano, Calgary Flames defenseman 

On tonight’s game…

“Yeah, I didn’t think we played our best, but obviously, our start was terrible. I thought we were better in the second and should have come away with points for sure. A couple bad reads in the third. Yeah, it’s a disappointing loss and we should have had some points there.” 

On the most frustrating part of tonight’s game…

“Well, we had the lead going into the third and had a couple of bad reads. Our (penalty kill), we’ve got to close the door there. I think a couple of us, myself actually, I opened up a seam by moving my stick. We’ve got to be better and kill those ones late in the game and then a power play with a minute and a half left. We had our chances, but couldn’t capitalize.”

• Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary Flames forward 

On coming into tonight’s game with momentum and losing it…

“Yeah, I mean probably from the start of the game we didn’t deserve to win. It’s as simple as that. There’s games where you can go through, I don’t know how many games, I think we won three in a row coming into tonight, and for us to be up 3-2 after two was kind of a miracle and it caught up with us in the third. Like I said, we didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t play well enough tonight. We got what we deserved tonight, but it’s just frustrating. We had the lead, (Mike Smith) was playing out of his mind tonight and for us to just give him one good period in the third, we just didn’t do that.”

On his teammates playing well tonight…

“I was really happy for them, they deserve it. They’ve been playing great up until this point. They deserve to get some credit today. A lot of the stuff they do today goes unnoticed.”

On what he pinpoints the loss to…

“It stings because I’m a guy that takes pride in the power play. I don’t know what we were tonight, we had some opportunities, maybe 1-for-5 or something. For us to have 6-on-4 at the end of the game with 1:30 left, only so long you can say we had our chances. We’ve got to start bearing and not so much bearing, but bearing down, we need to have our power play to start winning us some games and hopefully, it starts our next game.”

–       Tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 10): Practice, 11:30 a.m. at MSG Training Center

–       Next Game: Sunday, Feb. 11 at Winnipeg (3:00 p.m. ET – TV: MSG+)

*Schedule subject to change

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