EDMONTON, Alberta — At the New York Rangers’ morning skate Friday, coach Gerard Gallant was asked how he felt about playing the Edmonton Oilers with Connor McDavid sitting on 99 points.
“Well I'd sure like it if he had 99 after the game tonight, but I don't think that's gonna happen,’’ Gallant said with a grin. “I'm expecting he's gonna get one point tonight. I sure hope he doesn't, but I'm expecting he will.’’
McDavid, the Oilers’ captain and the NHL’s leading scorer, did get his 100th point of the season Friday against the Rangers at Rogers Place. In fact, he got two points.
But ultimately Gallant got what he wanted most. The Rangers rallied from two three-goal deficits and ended up winning, 5-4, in a shootout. Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere converted their attempts, with Lafreniere netting the winner in the sixth round.
The victory was the seventh in a row for the Rangers, who are 3-0 on their road trip, which concludes Saturday night in Calgary. The team is 33-14-8 and pulled to within one point of the second-place Devils in the Metropolitan Division.
Igor Shesterkin, who looked a little shaky in his last start Wednesday in Vancouver, and again in the first period against Edmonton, shut the door the rest of the way, making 25 saves in the victory.
The Rangers were trailing 4-2 at the start of the third period when Filip Chytil, who entered the game with a 37.2 percent success rate on faceoffs, won one in the offensive zone. Kaapo Kakko then got the puck in the corner and passed it to Lafreniere, who scored for his ninth goal of the season less than two minutes into the final period.
The Rangers tied it when Mika Zibanejad scored his 30th goal of the season, on a 5-on-4 power play with 6:50 remaining. The goal extended Zibanejad’s goal-scoring streak to six games and helped force overtime.
Shesterkin, who allowed four goals in the third period against Edmonton in a 4-3 loss the Oilers on Nov. 26, allowed four goals in the first period Friday as the Rangers fell behind 4-1.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring for Edmonton with a power-play goal at 7:52. McDavid got the secondary assist on the goal, giving him 100 points on the season in his 56th game.
The Oilers got the power play because Vincent Trocheck had been sent off for interference after Edmonton goalie Jack Campbell had dropped his stick and Trocheck knocked it away.
But the Oilers didn’t stop there.
Defenseman Tyler Barrie crashed the slot to win the race to the rebound off a shot by Warren Foegele and scored to make it 2-0 at 12:11 of the first period. Derek Ryan scored 19 seconds later, beating a shell-shocked Shesterkin on a shot from the right circle to make it 3-0.
Kreider stopped the bleeding momentarily when he tapped in a feed from Mika Zibanejad on the Rangers’ first power play at 13:36, but then K’Andre Miller was sent off for delay of game when he inadvertently lifted the puck up over the glass and out of play. The Oilers made the Rangers pay when Leon Draisaitl scored his 32nd goal of the season, and his league-leading 20th power play goal at 18:27.
After a rough first period, the Rangers and Shesterkin were better in the second period.
Shesterkin made a big glove save on McDavid less than two minutes into the period. Shesterkin made a couple good saves on other quality attempts to keep the Rangers in the game.
With the Rangers still trailing 4-1, Lafrenière was sent off at 5:55 of the second period for a holding penalty, giving the Oilers their third power play.
This time the Rangers were the ones celebrating as Kreider scored a shorthanded goal to bring the Rangers within 4-2. Kreider collected a pas off the boards from birthday boy Adam Fox and raced up the wing into the Oilers’ zone. His initial shot attempt hit an Edmonton defender’s skate and bounced right back to Kreider, who backhanded it in for his 24th goal of the season at 6:26 of the second.
