Author: SFDI

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Artemi Panarin registers 500^th career point in New York Rangers win

By Jordan Laroche

The New York Rangers came into tonight on a six game win streak, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Saturday. Igor Shesterkin was still on the Injured Reserve and will likely be back next week, the team recalled 2015 7^th round pick Adam Huska from the Hartford Wolf Pack to back up for Alexander Georgiev.

While the Chicago Blackhawks struggled earlier in the season, they have since been 8-4 with interim head coach Derek King going into tonight.

The scoring started early with Artemi Panarin making a graceful zone entry, holding several Blackhawk players away from the puck before finding Jacob Trouba open on the point just one minute into the first period. This marked Artemi Panarin’s 500^th NHL point against his former club, a strange coincidence that his first NHL point came in October 2015 against the New York Rangers.

The Blackhawks would rebound right away as Erik Gustafsson would score from the point off a deflection from Rangers forward Julien Gauthier just 30 seconds later. However, the Rangers would dominate most of the period with seven shots through the first six minutes.

A goal by Kirby Dach seven minutes into the first would give the Blackhawks some life as they crawled back in the shot count to tie the shots at nine for the period.

The second period remained a pretty tight contest as both Alexander Georgiev and Marc-Andre Fleury would make several key saves to keep the game at 2-1. That was until Artemi Panarin pounced on a loose puck in the slot for his eighth goal of the season to make it a 2-2 game.

The Rangers’ leading goal scorer, Chris Krieder, would put the Blueshirts up 3-2 five minutes into the third period scoring his ninth powerplay goal of the season. Krieder would also move back into third in the NHL’s scoring leaders as he ties Andrew Mangiapane and Auston Matthews with 17 goals this season.

The Rangers would continue to have the majority of the chances during the third period and would capitalize three more times en route to a 6-2 win. This improves the Rangers win streak to seven games, and moves them into first place in the Metropolitan Division and 2^nd place in the league standings with 39 points on a 17-4-3 record.

Box Score:

1^st period

G: NYR Jacob Trouba (5) A: Artemi Panarin (20) Ryan Strome (13)

G: CHI Erik Gustafsson (1)

G: CHI Kirby Dach (4) A: Alex DeBrincat (6) Dylan Strome (3)

2^nd period

G: NYR Artemi Panarin (8) A: Mika Zibanejad (15) Chris Krieder (4)

3^rd period

G: NYR Chris Krieder (17) A: Adam Fox (21) Artemi Panarin (21)

G: NYR Kevin Rooney (6) A: Adam Fox (22) Ryan Reaves (4)

G: NYR Artemi Panarin (9) (EN) A: Mika Zibanejad (16) Jacob Trouba (7)

G: NYR Barclay Goodrow (4) A: Ryan Reaves (5) Kevin Rooney (1)

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One thing is for certain, a strong rivalry is developing between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets.

While it might not be in the same category as say the Ottawa Senators and Leafs in the early 2000’s, it’s definitely getting very heated as the two teams made it clear that they will not be exchanging Christmas cards this year.

Shortly after Manitoba sports fans celebrated their beloved Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 21-17 advancing to next weekend’s Grey Cup, they saw the Jets fire 41 shots at Toronto’s back-up goalie Joseph Woll in what was a spirited win.

During what was an explosive third period, Leafs young defenceman Rasmus Sandin needed assistance getting off the ice and didn’t return after a violent knee-on-knee collision with Jets blueliner Neal Pionk which had the Leafs bench furious.

Other third-period incidents which caused temperatures to rise included Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois getting physical with Matthews and  Luc Dubois kneeing Woll in the head. The third also saw Jets coach Paul Maurice screaming obscenities at the Leafs bench.

As tensions continued to rise, Leafs Kyle Clifford got into a spirited scrap with Jets Brenden Dillon, and another Leafs forward, Wayne Simmons had something going with Jets defenceman Logan Stanley.

The Jets who came into action outside of a playoff spot scored the opening goal as Luc Dubois scored a power-play goal early in the first. Toronto would eventually be rewarded as Michael Bunting also came through with a late-period power play marker to tie things up heading into the second.

Winnipeg’s offense would take over as they exploded for four consecutive goals from forwards Andrew Copp, Evgeny Svechnikov, Kyle Connor with the Jets second power-play goal of the night, and Nikolaj Ehlers which had them in control with a 5-1 lead.

Late in the second, Toronto made things interesting as they struck for two quick goals from Austin Matthews with his 15^th and Ondrej Kase who 1:26 later scored to make it a two-goal game after 40 minutes of regulation.

The Leafs next game comes on Tuesday night when they are back home at Scotiabank Arena for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

GAME SUMMARY

1^st Period

4:05   PPG- Pierre-Luc Dubois (12), Blake Wheeler (11), Mark Scheifele (8) TOR-WPG

0        1

16:08 PPG- Michael Bunting (7),   Pierre Engvall (6), Nick Ritchie (7)            1     1

2^nd Period                                                                                         TOR- WPG  

1:51    Andrew Copp (7), Neal Pionk (13), Nate Schmidt (12)                   1    2

4:54    Evgeny Svechnikov (2), Dominic Toninato (2), Jansen Harkins (3)  1    3

7:38    PPG- Kyle Connor (15), Pierre-Luc Dubois (15), Blake Wheeler (12) 1  4

10:45  Nikolaj Ehlers (9),  Andrew Copp (13), Nate Schmidt (13)              1    5

14:20  Auston Matthews (15),  John Tavares (15), William Nylander (14)   2    5

15:46   Ondrej Kase (6),  Rasmus Sandin (8), Justin Holl (1)                    3     5

3rd Period

8 :14  Mark Scheifele (6), Kyle Connor (12), Neal Pionk (14)                 TOR- WPG

                                                                                                       3      6 

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By Neil Becker

One thing is for certain, a strong rivalry is developing between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets.

While it might not be in the same category as say the Ottawa Senators and Leafs in the early 2000’s, it’s definitely getting very heated as the two teams made it clear that they will not be exchanging Christmas cards this year.

Shortly after Manitoba sports fans celebrated their beloved Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 21-17 advancing to next weekend’s Grey Cup, they saw the Jets fire 41 shots at Toronto’s back-up goalie Joseph Woll in what was a spirited win.

During what was an explosive third period, Leafs young defenceman Rasmus Sandin needed assistance getting off the ice and didn’t return after a violent knee-on-knee collision with Jets blueliner Neal Pionk which had the Leafs bench furious.

Other third-period incidents which caused temperatures to rise included Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois getting physical with Matthews and  Luc Dubois kneeing Woll in the head. The third also saw Jets coach Paul Maurice screaming obscenities at the Leafs bench.

As tensions continued to rise, Leafs Kyle Clifford got into a spirited scrap with Jets Brenden Dillon, and another Leafs forward, Wayne Simmons had something going with Jets defenceman Logan Stanley.

The Jets who came into action outside of a playoff spot scored the opening goal as Luc Dubois scored a power-play goal early in the first. Toronto would eventually be rewarded as Michael Bunting also came through with a late-period power play marker to tie things up heading into the second.

Winnipeg’s offense would take over as they exploded for four consecutive goals from forwards Andrew Copp, Evgeny Svechnikov, Kyle Connor with the Jets second power-play goal of the night, and Nikolaj Ehlers which had them in control with a 5-1 lead.

Late in the second, Toronto made things interesting as they struck for two quick goals from Austin Matthews with his 15^th and Ondrej Kase who 1:26 later scored to make it a two-goal game after 40 minutes of regulation.

The Leafs next game comes on Tuesday night when they are back home at Scotiabank Arena for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

GAME SUMMARY

1^st Period

4:05   PPG- Pierre-Luc Dubois (12), Blake Wheeler (11), Mark Scheifele (8) TOR-WPG

0        1

16:08 PPG- Michael Bunting (7),   Pierre Engvall (6), Nick Ritchie (7)            1     1

2^nd Period                                                                                         TOR- WPG  

1:51    Andrew Copp (7), Neal Pionk (13), Nate Schmidt (12)                   1    2

4:54    Evgeny Svechnikov (2), Dominic Toninato (2), Jansen Harkins (3)  1    3

7:38    PPG- Kyle Connor (15), Pierre-Luc Dubois (15), Blake Wheeler (12) 1  4

10:45  Nikolaj Ehlers (9),  Andrew Copp (13), Nate Schmidt (13)              1    5

14:20  Auston Matthews (15),  John Tavares (15), William Nylander (14)   2    5

15:46   Ondrej Kase (6),  Rasmus Sandin (8), Justin Holl (1)                    3     5

3rd Period

8 :14  Mark Scheifele (6), Kyle Connor (12), Neal Pionk (14)                 TOR- WPG

                                                                                                       3      6 

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By Jordan Laroche

By Jordan Laroche