Alain Vigneault Notches 500th Career Victory as Rangers down Arizona

(NHL.com)

The Rangers came into Arizona to end not only the week, but the road trip as well. Yes I know the Rangers play on the road on Monday 2/16, but that is on Long Island against the Islanders. That is not exactly a “road trip”, but rather a bus ride away from MSG.

With the temperature in the mid-70’s in Arizona, and the Ranger dads along with their sons, swimming and golfing were the activities of the off day on Friday. On Saturday, the team took to the ice to play the always dangerous Coyotes. With Mike Smith in the nets, the Rangers would have to up their game to another level, because he is one of the very good goalies in the league. And he showed it as the first period ended in a scoreless tie.

The Broadway Blueshirts struck early in the second, as Kevin Klein fed Derek Stepan and Steps then sprung Chris Kreider with a beauty of a chip pass and the speedy Kreider did the rest. He outskated the Coyotes and was suddenly all alone on Mike Smith and beat the goalie with a neat little backhander.

The Coyotes were able to tie the score later in the second when Antoine Vermette was able to get back to his feet in time to swat the puck past Talbot before the New York netminder could react.

The third period however would be all Rangers, as they exploded for four goals, while holding Arizona to none. First it was Rick Nash with his 35^th of the season. The Coyotes then had a strong rush and Matt Hunwick had no choice but to pull down Tobias Rieder as he bore down on Talbot. Reider was rightly awarded a penalty shot, which Talbot was able to stop and keep the score at 2-1.

Then it was Kevin Hayes, on the Penalty Kill, as he collected the puck and bore in on the Coyote net as a defender fell to the ice. Kevin avoided the fallen Coyote and swept in on Smith to beat him cleanly.

Marc Staal had a rebound come out to near the blue line, where he jumped on it and blasted the puck into a crowd and past Smith for the fourth Ranger goal of the night.

Lee Stempniak scored the last goal of the night on assists by Dan Girardi and Dominic Moore.

Scoring:

NYR: Chris Kreider (13), Assisted by Derek Stepan & Kevin Klein

ARI: Antoine Vermette (13), Assisted by Oliver Ekman-Larsson & Lucas Leoio

NYR: Rick Nash (35) Assisted by Kevin Klein & Derick Brassard

NYR: Kevin Hayes (10) SHG, Unassisted

NYR: Marc Staal (4), Assisted by Derek Stepan & Marty St. Louis

NYR: Lee Stempniak (7), Assisted by Dan Girardi & Dominic Moore

Team Stats                              NYR                              ARI

Shots on Goal                         33                                  35

Power Play                              0 for 0                           0 for 3

Hits                                         34                                  38

Face Off Wins                        25                                  25

Giveaways                              5                                    11

Takeaways                             5                                    6

Blocked Shots                         10                                  14

Goalie Stats:

Mike Smith: 28 Saves on 33 Shots for a SV% of .848

Cam Talbot: 34 Saves on 35 Shots for a SV% of .971

3 Stars of the Game:

3^rd Star: Lucas Lessio: 1 Assist

2^nd Star: Chris Kreider: 1 Assist

1^st Star: Rick Nash: 1 Goal

Broadway Bits:

The Rangers have now won the first three games on this four game road trip.

The Rangers have won 34 of their last 54 games

They have also one goal or fewer in 18 of 54 games this season

The Blueshirt goaltenders have stopped both penalty shots taken from their opposition. Henrik Lundqvist stopped Gustav Nyquist at MSG versus the Detroit Red Wings and Cam Talbot has stopped Tobias Rieder of Arizona last night

Rick Nash scored his 35^th goal of the season

Chris Kreider scored a goal, dished out four hits and four shots on goal in 14:55 of ice time

Kevin Klein tied a single game career high with two assists and two points in 22:48 of ice time

Head Coach Alain Vigneault won his 500^th NHL game last night and became the first Ranger Coach to win his 500^th game AS A New York Ranger. He is now tied with the legendary Montreal Canadien head coach, Toe Blake, for 20^th place on the all-time list.

AV also won 500 games in only 942 games, which places him the fourth fastest in NHL history. He is behind only Toe Blake (911), Mike Babcock (895) and Scotty Bowman (825).

Kevin Hayes scored his first NHL shorthanded goal and posted a plus 1 rating in 16:15 of ice time

Cam Talbot stopped 34 shots on net and also stopped the first penalty shot in his career. He now has eight victories on the season

Marc Staal and Lee Stempniak each scored a goal on Saturday night

Derek Stepan recorded two assists, and Derick Brassard, Marty St. Louis, Dan Girardi and Dominic Moore all added an assist

The Rangers return home for Monday 2/16/15 to take on the NY Islanders in Long Island. The Rangers currently stand in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 33-16-5 and 71 points

They are one point ahead of Washington with 3 games in hand

They are two points behind Pittsburgh with two games in hand

They are also four points behind the NY Islanders with 2 games in hand also.