Rangers' Momentous Win Over Stars Has a Backstory

A change in energy helped propel the New York Rangers to a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.

This victory has a backstory.

New York traded Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night and Rangers general manager Chris Drury followed that up by meeting with the team according to Mollie Walker of The New York Post.

On Thursday, the Rangers switched things up by participating in a team-wide shootout competition at practice including all the coaches.

The Drury meeting on top of the joyous practice, was a way to help cool down the temperature around the team through a turbulent time.

To start their game against the Stars, the Rangers gave up a goal a few minutes in with another blowout seeming inevitable.

However, a shorthanded goal from Reilly Smith in the first period turned the tides of the contest and revived the Rangers.

“That was really big at the time,” Peter Laviolette said. “The bench really fueled up after that as well. That game could swing a different way pretty quick… Just gave good life to the bench and good juice.”

After Smith’s goal, the Rangers looked like a different team. Throughout the entirety of the night, the Bleushirts played with a sense of urgency, passion and physicality.

Vincent Trocheck also found the back of the net in the first period, scoring what was ultimately the game-winning goal.

As Laviolette said postgame, the Rangers were on the attack and completely in control of the pace of play at times, which was encouraging to see given the status quo recently.

The Rangers committed seven penalties during the game, but were able to kill all seven power play opportunities that Dallas had.

Their leading anchor on the penalty kill was Igor Shesterkin who finished the night with 41 saves, in what was a masterful performance.

“We had to kill more penalties than we would’ve liked to kill, but the penalty kill was awesome,” Laviolette said. “I thought they did a tremendous job, Shesty was great in net, the penalty killers were fantastic.”

Matt Rempe was another player who made a surprising impact. Despite getting ejected after a hit on Miro Heiskanen, Rempe drew three penalties while his physicality sparked the team in a positive way.

“I thought he had a big impact on the game,” Laviolette said about Rempe. “We'd like to stay away from the 5-minute major, but he's doing his best to hit bodies and make a difference in the game. Our guys really rallied around that.”

This victory was not pretty, but the Rangers won the right way and they can use it to fuel momentum going forward.

“It’s huge. It’s obviously no secret we haven’t liked our game the past month call it,” Adam Fox said. “We’ve talked as a group, we know we have this in us and it takes everyone to do it. It’s not one guy here and there, it takes everyone. Everyone I thought was battling. We got to carry this momentum and give a good effort on home ice, as well.”

The Rangers will be back in action on Sunday afternoon against the Carolina Hurricanes.