Home ice was supposed to be the elixir for the Rangers. It was supposed to be the difference. The Rangers entered Thursday night’s Game 5 at the Garden having won their previous eight home playoff games, dating back to their triple-overtime loss to the Penguins in their first postseason game.
The atmosphere was there for them Thursday night. It was everything they needed, coming back to their home building after two losses in Tampa that had knotted the series at 2-2. The home crowd, at full-throttle, full-throat from pregame warm-ups on, held nothing back as it tried to will the Rangers to a 3-2 series lead heading back to Tampa for a Saturday night Game 6 at Amalie Arena.
The Rangers, who left the Garden six nights earlier with 2-0 series lead, came out of the locker room with energy. Their forechecking, something that had been lacking in Tampa, looked more committed, their hits looked like they had more weight and want-to than they did in Tampa. In the end, though, the Rangers simply couldn’t finish in the offensive zone and, as a result their season is one road loss away being finished after a deflating 3-1 loss to the Lightning .
The difference on this night was the Rangers’ inability to finish their chances. “We definitely had our chances,’’ Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who scored their only goal in the game, said. “Their goalie played well and made some saves, but we just couldn’t seem to get that next goal.
’’ Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba did his best to take the glass-half-full approach postgame. “You can always look at a game and say you could have gotten more,’’ Trouba said. “The chances were there.
The goalie [Andrei Vasilevskiy] made some good saves, which makes it frustrating for us. It’s not like we’re getting the doors blown off us. We’re in these games.
They’re tight games. “As much as that stings now, you can look at that and know you’re right there and you can go to Tampa and you can win a game. ’’ The Rangers first quality scoring chance came halfway through the first period when Filip Chytil missed the net from right in front of Vasilevskiy on a nifty Kaapo Kakko pass.
With about five minutes remaining in that opening period, Rangers winger Artemi Panarin, who’s been starved for a goal, had a great look to Vasilevskiy’s right side and hit him in the shoulder with a wrist shot. Chytil had a chance from close in with a rebound that was saved by the Tampa goalie. After play was called, Panarin had an exasperated look on his face, as if to say, “When is something going to go in for us?’’ “Maybe we just didn’t shoot enough,’’ Panarin said.
“We were passing it a little too much. We just couldn’t score. ’’ Added Rangers center Andrew Copp: “It’s a 60-minute in game [and] there’s chances all over the ice to be had.
As a mindset, we want to get more pucks to the net. ’’ The Rangers missed some chances in the second period, too, with Mika Zibanejad taking a pass from Chris Kreider and missing an open net. The Rangers finally broke through with a Lindgren goal — a wrister that whistled past Vasilevskiy high on his right blocker side (his kryptonite in this series).
The goal ended a maddening streak of 169 minutes and 8 seconds without an even-strength goal for the Rangers, dating back to Game 2. .
From: nypost
URL: https://nypost.com/2022/06/10/rangers-cant-convert-on-scoring-chances-despite-home-ice/
