I'm back! For an entire season this time!
Mika Zibanejad scored a short-handed goal, a power play tally, and missed out on a hat trick by that much as the New York Rangers avenged their Eastern Conference Final loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 3-1 victory Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Fun fact: Zibanejad is the only current NHLer with whom I share a birthday.
Nobody scored in the opening 20 minutes, due to the spectacular goaltending put on by Igor Shesterken and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Come period 2, however, Zibanejad changed things quickly, scoring a shortie with a beautiful backhand finish to open his 2022-23 scoring log. It also became the Rangers' first goal in 2022-23- the first of many to come. Zib's initial tally came at 3:25 of the 2nd period. Later on, at 9:09 of that same period, Steven Stamkos tied the game at 1 off a faceoff win almost directly beforehand not getting a good shot toward Shesterkin. It would be the only goal Tampa put in the Rangers' cage on the night.
Heading to the 3rd period, Zibanejad needed 5:11 for his 2nd goal of the game, punishing a one-timer slice from Artemi "Breadman" Panarin at 87 mph for his latest slapshot. (Hey, the game was on ESPN. That's literally what it said for the shot speed, I'm not kidding) It also happened to be on the power play, after a Tampa high-sticking penalty that saw Vladislav Namestnikov serve 2 minutes in the box for clipping Barclay Goodrow. And funny enough, Goodrow himself would provide the final tally for the Rangers right at the 11-minute mark of the period. Karma. And maybe a bit of revenge, especially since it's usually cold as ice.
Zibanejad got one last shot for another goal with 41 seconds left in the game but unfortunately and hilariously missed the empty Tampa net by about an inch, clocking the left side post in the process. Don't worry. I know he'll get at least one or more this year. He's still got plenty of time!
In short, New York regained their mantra of last season of "No Quit in New York", something they seemed to let slip out of their hands last season considering how they blew a 2-0 series lead against Tampa in the Eastern final. But that's long gone now. The Blueshirts have officially put that behind them.
Team Stats
Shots: TB 26, NYR 39
Hits: TB 19 NYR 24
PIM: TB 8, NYR 12
Faceoff Wins: TB 17, NYR 30
Up Next
TB: 10/14, @ CBJ, 7 PM
NYR: 10/13, @ MIN, 8 PM
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