Artemi Panarin needed only 10 seconds for the overtime winner as the New York Rangers came back from an early 5-3 3rd period deficit to defeat the New York Islanders 6-5 in overtime Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in the 2nd game of the weekend's Stadium Series competition.
Erik Gustavsson scored the opening goal for the Rangers at 1:28, his 5th of the season, shooting one past Islanders netminder Ilya Sorotkin from the blue line to give the Blueshirts the early lead, much like yesterday's contest between Philadelphia and New Jersey. However, the Isles quickly countered, first via a tying goal from Brock Nelson (23) at 4:20 and then a double-up by Bo Horvat (22) at 7:18 and Matt Barzal (16) at 7:34 on an Isles power play for a sudden 3-1 lead.
Moving to the 2nd period, the Islanders added another PPG, this one from Anders Lee just 1:03 in to make it 4-1 Isles. However, the Rangers pulled one back a few minutes later, courtesy of Vincent Trocheck (17) at 5:36 with the Rangers logging their own PPG. Trocheck would score the next goal too, putting the Rangers within 1, 4-3, at 18:32 of the period for his 18th effort of the season.
The Islanders once again started the 3rd period hot, needing 1:53 for Alexander Romanov (6) to give them a 5-3 lead. Eventually, though, the Rangers caught up, thanks to 2 extra attacker goals by Chris Kreider (28) at 15:52 on another Blueshirts PP and then birthday bud Mika Zibanejad (18) on yet another Rangers man advantage with just under a minute to go. Heading to 3-on-3, 5-minute overtime, Panarin put one in the oven (they call him the Breadman for a reason, folks) just 10 seconds into the extra few minutes, and after a brief review, the Rangers were awarded the game-winning goal. (The net came off its pegs; Panarin put it in before it did)
With the comeback win and the tagline of No Quit in New York being present, the Rangers improve to 36-16-3, and remain firmly atop the Metro Division with their 7th straight win today. As such, they possess an 8-1-1 last 10 record, with a home duel against Dallas back at the Garden on February 20 at 7 pm. The Islanders drop to 22-18-14, 5th in the Metro, suffering their 3rd straight defeat with today's result. They have a 3-3-4 last 10 record, with a trip to Pittsburgh up next, same time and date.
Team Stats:
Shots: NYR 37, NYI 41
Hits: NYR 34, NYI 20
Faceoff Wins: NYR 21, NYI 45
PIM: NYR 11, NYI 17
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