Eric Staal was held without a point in his Rangers debut Monday night, but he did help his new team pick up another two points in the standings as the Blueshirts held off the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 at Madison Square Garden.
Derek Stepan snapped a 1-1 tie by scoring a shorthanded goal at 17:12 of the third period for what turned out to be the game-winner. It was his second shortie of the season, and 14th goal overall, and came on a breakaway in which he patiently outwaited rookie netminder Joonas Korpisalo before slipping the game-winning shot into the net.
The play started when Ryan McDonagh forced Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones into a turnover, and continued when McDonagh sprung Stepan on the breakaway.
“It was a great play by (McDonagh) and I’m able to jump up into a situation with just me and the goaltender,” explained Stepan, whose goal provided New York its third straight victory, and fifth in the past six games. “I took a look up and took my chances on beating him to the back pipe.”
Staal made his Rangers debut 24 hours after being acquired in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. He spent the first two periods centering a line with Kevin Hayes and Oscar Lindberg on the wings before shifting to the left side of Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello in the third. He also saw time centering one of the Rangers power play units.
“I had some butterflies, but they were good butterflies,” said Staal after the game. “I think it was just the adrenaline, the excitement at this opportunity joining a great team.”
Wearing his No. 12 for the first time on a New York Rangers jersey, Staal was greeted warmly by the Blueshirts Faithful. He ended up logging 15 minutes 43 seconds of ice time and recording one shot on goal, one hit and one takeaway. Staal also won nine of his 17 face offs.
“When I put the jersey on, it was very blue compared to a lot of red,” Staal said while smiling. “It was a little different, but it felt real good. It was fun to start here. The group welcomed me with open arms and I’m just excited to get comfortable and go.”
With Staal’s addition to the lineup, along with the absence of Jesper Fast from the lineup due to an illness, head coach Alain Vigneault had to shuffle his line combinations quite a bit on Monday. Viktor Stalberg, for instance, started with Stepan and Chris Kreider, and then slid back to his usual spot with Hayes and Lindberg. J.T. Miller began the night with Brassard and Zuccarello before finishing it on the Stepan line.
Rookie defenseman Dylan McIlrath was pressed into service as a forward for the first time in his professional career. He played right wing on the team’s fourth line with Dominic Moore and Tanner Glass, drawing the most attention when he fought Columbus forward Jared Boll at 10:35 of the second period.
“In looking at my whole group I thought we were OK,” offered Vigneault. “There’s no doubt I think we can play better than we did; but I don’t want to take anything away from Columbus. I think that’s a better team than their record.”
Whatever the reason it was a largely disjointed game for the Rangers, though goaltender Antti Raanta did a solid job between the pipes while starting in the place of the resting Henrik Lundqvist. Raanta finished with 26 saves and was named the game’s First Star.
He did have one final scary moment, however. There was a wild last-second scramble in his crease, with the puck eventually slipping over the goal line. However it was clearly after the clock had reached 0.0 and the buzzer had sounded signaling the end of the game.
“I just saw the wraparound, the puck hit my pad and then in a little bit it was in the net and I thought this can’t be real,” explained Raanta. “Then I saw the referee waving it off and the guys coming off the bench towards me and I was real happy about that. It was a tough game for us and it was a great feeling to get the two points.”
Zuccarello had given New York a 1-0 lead late in the first period, a lead they held until early in the third. Zuccarello’s 21st goal of the season came after he sped behind the Columbus net, came out on right wing, and proceeded to bank a shot off Korpisalo and into the cage.
Columbus was able to pull even at 3:46 of the third period when Cam Atkinson netted his 20th, burying the rebound after Raanta had stopped his initial shot on a clean breakaway.
However with only 2:48 remaining in regulation Stepan’s shorthanded goal, on a breakaway, proved to be the game winner.
“It feels real nice to get the win,” stated Staal. “I thought our guys competed hard all the way through. Not the best start, but we got better as it went on and obviously a huge goal by Step there to close it out.”
The Rangers finished up February with a record of 10-3-1, tying the franchise record for most wins during the month of February, a mark established twice before in 1971-72 and a year ago.
Now the Blueshirts will look ahead to a busy and tough month of March which opens up with a difficult back-to-back on the road against two of the best teams in their division–the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night and the Washington Capitals on Friday.
(Reprinted with permission of New York Rangers)
