It's been a rough season for Madison Square Garden, and none of the Rangers' losses hurt more than two lopsided losses to the Devils earlier this year.
So perhaps Thursday night's thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over their rivals across the river had special meaning. The overtime session ended with an unheralded goal from Sam Carrick at 2:48.
The Rangers, who lost four straight at the end of last month, are now 3 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw, so it was a series of decidedly small wins.
Despite this, their play improved and goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who had missed four games with an upper-body injury, returned to the net.
This match was not an easy one. This was after losing to Dallas in overtime in their last game.
However, after tying the score at 2-2 late in the second period, the Rangers had nothing to show for it, although they dominated much of the third period.
Carrick then received a great feed from Riley Smith and buried it to send the Rangers on their next West Coast road trip with the win, their first OT win of the year.
“I might have fainted,” Carrick said of his reaction to the game-winning goal, his third of the season.
He added that the win was part of a major turnaround in the locker room.
“We’ve made some adjustments here and there and are starting to get our identity back here,” Carrick said. “We want to be a tough team to play against. We got away from that, but we're taking steps in the right direction.”
Peter Laviolette said it was “amazing” that Carrick scored the winning goal.
“He doesn't usually play that much,” the manager said of Carrick, who played more minutes Thursday due to the absence of Filip Sitil, who was sidelined with an upper-body injury.
“He's been playing good hockey for us lately. He continues to be aggressive on offense. He hits. [and] Does a lot of the dirty work in the defensive zone. It makes me really happy when a player like that scores a goal. ”
Laviolette was pleased with the overall performance, noting that there were times this year, especially against New Jersey, where his team's defensive play was questionable.
The Rangers on Thursday were looking for some redemption after losing 10-1 to the Devils in their previous two meetings.
After the most recent loss, the Devils mocked the Rangers on social media, comparing the Blueshirts to a dumpster fire.
The Rangers had a much better fight on Thursday.
The Devils entered the season having lost 11 of their past 15 games, while the Devils had dropped four of their last five.
The Rangers took the lead at 12:05 of the first inning with Adam Fox's power-play goal past Jacob Markstrom. It was the Foxes' first non-empty-net goal of the season and came on a faceoff win by Vincent Trocheck.
Shesterkin was strong, making 11 saves in the first period, but the Devils nearly took the lead early on when Nico Ithier deflected a shot from Luke Hughes and Shesterkin fired. , which hit the crossbar.
After the Devils went 5-for-8 with extra players in the first two games, the Rangers also took two penalty shots early on.
The Devils tied the game at 1-1 early in the second period, and at 4:03, Jack Hughes deflected a Brett Pesce shot for his fifth goal in three games against the Rangers, his 16th of the season. I scored a goal. Jesper Bratt beat Shesterkin at 8:28 to give the Devils a 2-1 lead.
At the 17:13 mark of the second game, Artemi Panarin scored the Rangers' second power play goal of the night, tying the score at 2-2.
The Rangers came out in front of the Devils' net early in the third, making the first eight shots of the period, but couldn't capitalize.
