ANAHEIM, Calif. — Time will tell whether the Rangers' hot start was a fluke or whether it was due to the anomalies of the past month or so.
But Sunday's 5-2 win over the Ducks showed that resilience is still in the Rangers' DNA after the Rangers came roaring back from an early two-point deficit to end a two-game losing streak in front of a split crowd. He showed that he can play with heart. Honda Center.
For much of the game, Ducks fans were cheering as if their club were the third-best team in the NHL, rather than the third-from-bottom team in the NHL.
However, when push came to shove, the Blueshirts began fighting back in the final frame, scoring four unanswered goals (including an empty-netter) to steal the victory.
Will Quill deserves a lot of credit for sparking this team. After scoring the tying goal, the Rangers rookie scored a penalty, putting the visitors on the power play.
Artemi Panarin took advantage of the man advantage and hit a one-timer for the first lead of the night.
To end the game, Jimmy Vesey scored into an empty net after Chris Kreider followed up on his own rebound.
The Rangers fought for over 37 minutes of the game, eventually breaking through and cutting the lead against the Ducks to 2-1.
It happened on a power play that has led to just two goals in the past five games, when Kreider snatched the puck off the end boards and set up Vincent Trocheck.
To that point, the Rangers' growing frustration began to spill onto the ice.
They looked indecisive and unsure of themselves at times, trying to find some kind of rhythm.
Because of this, head coach Peter Laviolette has had a lot of trouble with the unit, aside from the unit of Quill, Johnny Brodzinski and Blake Wheeler, the only trio that showed any signs of life in the offensive zone at times. It ended up confusing the line.
Kaapo Kakko also did not get the first shift of the second period until more than half the period had passed.
When he finally took to the ice during 5-on-5 play, in his second and final middle-frame shift, the Finnish winger was demoted to the fourth line.
The Ducks almost scored a 3-1 dagger goal relatively early in the third period when Mason McTavish cleaned up a rebound in a wide-open net, but a successful offsides challenge by the Rangers wiped it off the board. Ta.
It was then that the Rangers produced their first significant push of the night. Quill, who continued to send his body to the net as he had tried to do throughout the game, fought hard up front and caught Jacob Trouba's long shot with his stick to make it 2-2 with 9:50 left in regulation time. decided the match.
The Rangers started this game picking up where they left off in Los Angeles, but lacked momentum and watched their opponents turn every mistake into a scoring opportunity or goal.
It didn't take long for the second half of that sentence to happen – 51 seconds to be exact.
Panarin's score near the Blue defensive line sent the Ducks steamrolling into the Rangers zone before Adam Henrique hit a backhander past Igor Shesterkin.
The Rangers looked like they were going to bring their bodies to the net and take long shots on goal, but the Ducks kept the visitors on the perimeter and finished the first period with 14 blocks.
Without the Quill Brodzinski-Wheeler line, the Rangers wouldn't have had much zone time in the opening frame.
Later in the period, when Anaheim made some numbers in the Rangers zone, Enrique stuffed a rebound past both Ryan Lindgren and Shesterkin, who blocked Troy Terry's initial shot, for a 2-0 lead.
