NEW YORK – After dominating the New York Rangers without scoring for much of the night, rookie Danila Yurov finally gave the Minnesota Wild the conclusion they desperately needed.
Yurov scored his first NHL goal in the third period on the way to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, and an end to their three-game losing streak.
With the game tied 1-1, Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped Marcus Johansson’s wraparound attempt, but the puck was loose in the crease just long enough for Yurov to sweep it over the line. Wild teammate Vladimir Tarasenko collected the puck from the referee to give to Yurov as a souvenir.
Jonas Brodin scored his first goal of the season early in the game, and goalie Filip Gustavsson turned aside most of the Rangers’ sporadic offense, recording 22 saves for his second win of the season. He preserved the lead midway through the third, gloving a point-blank shot by Rangers star Mika Zibanejad on the goal line.
Kirill Kaprizov added an empty-net goal late.
The win — their first on this road trip — was a just reward for the second game in a row where the Wild have been dominant but have struggled to find goals from all of their offense. Nonetheless, they improved to 3-3-1 with the come-from-behind victory.
Trailing 1-0 early, the Wild drew even when Brodin blasted a low shot from the top of the left circle. On its way to the net, the puck deflected off a Ranger’s stick, then off the stick blade of Shesterkin, before ramping into the upper right corner. It was Brodin’s first goal of the season.
Minnesota controlled long stretches of the first period, outshooting the Rangers 12-2 at one point. They appeared, briefly, to take the lead past the halfway point of the first when David Jiricek sailed a pass across the offensive zone. The puck was deflected into the air, and Vinnie Hinostroza batted it into the net on a bounce.
Officials immediately waved no goal due to Hinostroza playing the puck with a high stick. The Wild did not challenge the call.
They outshot the Rangers 17-5 in period one, posting more shots in the opening 20 minutes than they had mustered for the entire games at Washington (14) and Philadelphia (16).
The Rangers, who were 0-3 at home coming into this game and had been shut out in all three of those contests, needed less than a minute to end that drought, when Artemi Panarin found some clean ice in the offensive zone and snapped off a shot that beat Gustavsson on the glove side.
About the only other thing to get the New York crowd involved in the first period came in the final minute, when defenseman Braden Schneider leveled Marcus Foligno with an open-ice check in the neutral zone, dropping Foligno to the ice and snapping his stick in half. Foligno returned for the second period, apparently no worse for wear.
There was an unplanned stoppage early in the second period, when a Kaprizov shot hit Shesterkin up high, stunning the goalie and damaging his throat protector. He skated to the Rangers’ bench and was attended to by the trainer and the equipment man, then returned to the game.
The game was halted a second time with the Wild on a power play, when a Hinostroza shot hit Rangers center Noah Laba in the face. He dropped to a knee immediately and left a trail of blood on the ice before being helped to the trainers’ room.
Laba returned for the third period wearing a full cage face mask.
Shesterkin had 29 saves for the Rangers, who are celebrating the franchise’s 100th season with several nods to the team’s founding in 1926. That included the team wearing throwback jerseys, live big band music between periods and an ice crew wearing Roaring ‘20s style bow ties, suspenders and Gatsby hats.
The Wild’s five-game road trip concludes on Wednesday evening with a 6 p.m. CDT visit to the New Jersey Devils in Newark.
Briefly
Foligno honored his recently-deceased great uncle, Eddie Giacomin, with a sticker on his helmet Monday night. Giacomin, who died Sept. 14 at age 86, was a hall of fame goaltender with the Rangers and Red Wings from 1965 until he retired in 1978. His number 1 jersey was retired by the Rangers in 1989. Foligno also plans to wear the sticker on April 5 when the Wild visit Detroit.
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