ANAHEIM, Calif. – Desperate times call for desperate measures. And for the Rangers, these are desperate times.
They’d lost the first two games of this West Coast trip heading into Sunday night’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, the team with the third-fewest points in the league. It had to be considered a must-win for a Rangers team that had been below .500 since December 3 and hanging on by its fingernails to an ever-shrinking lead in the Metropolitan Division.
So, with his team trailing by two goals in the second period Sunday, coach Peter Laviolette pulled out all the stops, changing up his forward lines in an effort to find some kind of spark. Ultimately, it worked, as the Rangers rallied with five straight goals, including four in the third period, to beat the lowly Ducks, 5-2. It was the Rangers’ first win of the road trip, which concludes Tuesday in San Jose.
The Rangers, who trailed 2-1 entering the third period, poured the pressure on, as Laviolette shortened his bench and kept putting his top five forwards — Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere — onto the ice. For a moment, it looked as if they had fallen behind, 3-1, on a goal by Mason McTavish with 14:42 left, but Laviolette challenged the goal, alleging the Ducks were offside entering the zone. He won the challenge.
Given new life, the Rangers got the tying goal from rookie Will Cuylle, who tipped in a shot from Jacob Trouba to make it 2-2 at 10:10. Then, with 5:51 remaining, McTavish was called for tripping Cuylle, giving the Rangers a power play. Panarin scored the go-ahead goal 14 seconds later on a one-timer off a feed from Adam Fox.
Kreider made it 4-2 when he fired a shot from the wing and then batted in his own rebound at 16:07.
The victory ended the losing streak at two and improved the Rangers’ record to 29-15-2. They have a four-point lead over second-place Philadelphia, which lost to Ottawa Sunday.
Both the Rangers and Ducks…
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