Playing out the string in a season of disappointment, the New York Rangers will return home having a strong victory to build on when they face the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
The Rangers, who sit last in the Eastern Conference and are all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, provided a dominant performance in their 6-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
New York benefited from a three-goal lead in the opening period and increased it to 6-1 in the middle frame before cruising to its third win in five outings (3-1-1).
“It’s always nice when you get that type of lead, you get that type of start,” said forward Mika Zibanejad, who scored twice in a three-point performance. “It feels better winning than losing. The stretch we’re in and the situation we’re in, all we can do is try to win and play our (butts) off.”
The Rangers looked nothing like bottom feeders against the Flyers, whose playoff hopes took a hit in the loss. The early outburst was key.
“Being proactive as opposed to being reactive,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “The last few games, we’ve given up early leads. We fought back, but we’ve got to be better at the drop of the puck. I’ve always been a strong believer that’s a mindset.”
Scoring a season-high three power-play goals also helped. The Rangers tallied only two man-advantage markers in their six previous games.
“We made good decisions and there was execution,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got a lot of talent out there and we did a good job of handling their pressure.”
The Flames are one point behind the Rangers in the NHL standings after losing 7-3 to the Washington Capitals on Monday to open a five-game road swing.
Calgary, which is ahead of only the Vancouver Canucks in the overall standings, has only four wins in the past 15 games (4-8-3).
As bad as the score vs. Washington looks, Calgary erased a three-goal deficit in the second before surrendering four unanswered third-period tallies in the final 10 minutes.
“We let one slip away where I though we did a good job of battling back in the game,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “Those ones, you want to find a way to win it.”
Calgary has the NHL’s worst road record at 9-19-3. And the Flames aren’t likely to improve much after dealing key veterans in Nazem Kadri and MacKenzie Weegar leading up to the trade deadline last Friday.
Even so, the expectation is to battle hard through every game.
“That’s gonna be the story of our team; there won’t be any quit in this room,” said forward Blake Coleman, who scored one of his teams’ two short-handed goals against Washington. “We’re gonna have guys that fight every night. We had the momentum going into the third period and didn’t quite take advantage of it.”
Calgary has won three consecutive meetings with the Rangers, including a 5-1 home game in October.
“You move on quick,” Coleman said. “It’s a travel back-to-back, so we’ll get out of here, get some recovery, and I expect us to put a good effort forward.”
