DALLAS — The Rangers needed a pick-me-up, and they got it in the form of a solid win to salvage a rough road trip.
Erasing an early two-goal deficit to complete another comeback victory, the Rangers rallied to a 7-4 win over the Stars Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd at American Airlines Center. It was a game the Rangers felt they needed to come up with a good performance to make up for a couple poor outings in their last two losses.
The Rangers have not lost three in a row since November, and have yet to lose three straight in regulation this season.
“I think it was kind of a must-win game for us,” said Dryden Hunt, who chipped in a season-high three assists. “Although it wasn’t, it kind of was, just for our mental well-being. It was only two games, but it felt like a couple weeks of just not playing our best. A little nerve-wracking there after the first two goals, but just a good answer by us and all around pretty good game.”
After getting outscored 11-4 in the last two games, the Rangers seemed as though they picked up right where they left off, with their sluggish play from losses at Minnesota and St. Louis pouring into this game. Struggling to get through the neutral zone, the Rangers were sloppy for the first five minutes and fell into a 2-0 hole.
Somehow, someway, they woke up and unleashed four straight goals in the span of just over five minutes from Greg McKegg, Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox and Panarin, who also had four assists.
“It was an important game,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said after the win, which improved the Rangers to 37-17-5. “If we would’ve lost, 4-3, tonight and played the way we did, I would’ve been satisfied. I want to win games every game, but I liked the way the team played. The last two games prior to this, I wasn’t happy with the way we played and they weren’t happy.
“Tonight, we played the right way, we did the right things, we competed hard, everybody was involved.”
After storming back, the Rangers got into some trouble with penalties again early on in the second and found themselves on the wrong end of a five-on-three stretch. Dallas’ top-line winger, Jason Robertson made the Rangers pay with a one-timer from the left circle to make it a one-goal game at 7:10 of the middle frame.
The Rangers managed to stay in it, with defenseman Patrik Nemeth’s wraparound goal extending their lead to 5-3 toward the end of the period. Despite the Stars pulling within one behind Joe Pavelski’s goal at 8:09 of the final frame, Barclay Goodrow gave the Rangers some breathing room with a score off the rush.
Ryan Strome then scored an empty-net goal to secure the victory, which ignited some “Let’s Go Rangers” chants from the traveling fans.
Hunt noted that the Rangers bench was relatively calm despite falling behind by two goals early on. As much as Gallant’s criticism of the team the previous two games likely resonated in the locker room, Hunt said the Rangers have a lot of pride and didn’t even need a message from their head coach.
“I think guys just had enough of these terrible starts that we’ve had and we’ve kind of left Shesty [Igor Shesterkin] out to dry,” Hunt said. “It’s just a huge answer for us. And that’s been our problem as of late, so to flip that switch like that is huge.”