DALLAS — A win the Rangers could feel good about was at the top of their wish list for the holidays.
Especially with a grueling schedule ahead before the calendar flips to 2025, the Blueshirts’ 3-1 win over the Stars — a Western Conference contender — on Friday night at American Airlines Center was both a performance and a triumph that injected confidence.
Against a high-volume shooting team like Dallas and in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,532, the Rangers snapped a three-game losing streak and picked up their first victory over a team in playoff position since Nov. 19.
“It’s huge,” Adam Fox said. “It’s obviously no secret we haven’t liked our game the past month, call it. We’ve talked as a group, we know we have this in us, and it takes everyone to do it. It’s not one guy here and there. It takes everyone. Everyone I thought was battling. We got to carry this momentum and give a good effort on home ice, as well.”
The Rangers’ penalty kill was the star of the show Friday night.
Frankly, it’s the only aspect of their game that stood tall during the previous 3-11 skid.
In addition to fending off all seven of the Stars’ power plays, including a five-minute stretch in the second half of the final frame, the Blueshirts’ first goal of the game was a shorthanded score from Reilly Smith.
As a result, the Rangers have been perfect on the PK in the past six games.
Over that span, they have successfully defended 17 straight power plays.
- CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND RANGERS STATS
Their 12 power-play goals against so far this season were tied for the fewest in the NHL entering Friday’s contest.
All this without one of their top penalty killers, K’Andre Miller, who remains on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
“Seventeen minutes on the PK, pretty gritty,” said Vincent Trocheck, who gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead with a bullet shot from the top of the zone toward the end of the first period. “PK came up big tonight. We can get a lot of momentum from our penalty kill when it’s playing like it was tonight. We need to continue to do that.”
The Rangers haven’t had many leads to defend lately, but the ones they’ve had haven’t lasted long. Dallas poured 15 shots on Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin (41 saves) in the third period alone, but Chris Kreider’s empty-net goal with just over two minutes left in regulation iced the game.
In his first appearance back in the Rangers lineup since Nov. 25, Matt Rempe found ways to make an impact before his night ended prematurely due to a five-minute elbowing major and game misconduct he earned at the 7:13 mark of the third period.
Crunching Miro Heiskanen into the boards, Rempe’s elbow came up and knocked the Stars’ first-pair defenseman to the ice.
It prompted a scuffle in front of Dallas’ bench before referees came to break it up.
“Little bit slow at the start for the first four or five minutes, but after that, it was awesome,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought we were on the attack the whole time. We ended up having to kill more penalties than we’d like to kill, but the penalty kill was awesome. We scored a goal. I thought they did a tremendous job. Shesty was great in net, but the penalty kill was really fantastic. … It was a really good win.”
