After a decent break, the New York Rangers were on home ice to face the Minnesota Wild in their 75th game of the season and a crucial game for their playoff hopes.
Before the game, Ranger forward Will Cuylle was awarded the Steven McDonald Extra Effort award “presented annually to the Ranger who, as chosen by the fans, ‘goes above and beyond the call of duty.'”
Rangers’ first round pick in 2024, Gabe Perreault made his debut tonight at the Garden.
Minnesota opened the scoring when a turnover from the Rangers Vincent Trocheck led to a Wild player taking over possession at the blue line. The player at the blueline passed over to Marcus Johansson on the face-off dot who then passed to Gustav Nyquist who slipped the puck behind Igor Shesterkin at the backdoor of the net to give the Wild a 1-0 lead at 11:00.
It took less than four minutes for the Blueshirts to tie the game. Artemi Panarin ragged the puck around the offensive zone before passing to Urho Vaakanainen, who took a one-time slap shot. The slap shot was saved by Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson but the rebound fell to Braden Schneider who one-timed the puck into the net at 7:15.
2:15 later, the Wild went ahead on Brock Faber’s goal, which was assisted by Johansson and Frederick Gaudreau.
Brock Faber fires one in to get the Wild's lead back! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6WvcLbyQdz
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 2, 2025
Fast forward to the second period and the Rangers would get the next goal. A goal came from an unlikely source in defenseman K’Andre Miller whose one-time slap shot beat Gustavsson high over his shoulder to tie the game at 17:09. The goal was assisted by J.T. Miller and Will Borgen.
The Rangers were not done there. When Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm mishandled the puck in front of his own net, Chris Kreider picked up the loose puck, dragged to his backhand and lifted the puck over Gustavsson to give the Rangers their first lead of the game, 3-2 at 12:39.
But Minnesota answered back. With 10 minutes to go in the period, the Wild were shorthanded and Brock Faber capitalized on a turnover in the neutral zone and came in three on two. Faber passed to Nyquist who laid the puck off to Johansson in the high slot and the Swede rifled a wrist shot over Shesterkin’s blocker to tie the game at 3.
Marcus Johansson SHORTY ties it back up at 3 for the Wild in the 2nd!#mnwild pic.twitter.com/fW9gssf5aZ
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 3, 2025
Shesterkin embodied the saying fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The Russian wasn’t to be fooled again when Mats Zuccarello made a centering pass for Matt Boldy whose one-time shot was stopped by Shesty’s pads.
With one minute remaining in the second period, Minnesota’s Marco Rossi turned the puck over at the Rangers’ blue line. Artemi Panarin skated past two Wild players through the neutral zone and on a breakaway. He deked to his forehand and snapped the puck over Gustavsson’s pad to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead at 1:04.
Just 22 seconds into the third period, the Wild tied the game. The play developed from K’Andre Miller trying to make a short pass to a teammate that was intercepted by Rossi. Rossi passed to Boldy at the backdoor, whose shot was saved by Shesterkin but the rebound popped out in the crease where it was stuffed home by Rossi to tie the game at 4.
With 10 minutes left in the game, the Wild’s Ryan Hartman was called for interference against JT Miller. Then 1:16 later, the Wild’s Marcus Johansson was called for tripping K’Andre Miller. This put the Rangers on a two man advantage but they were unable to convert.
The Wild, playing undisciplined, took another penalty with a little over four minutes remaining in the game when Marcus Foligno tripped K’Andre Miller but again the Rangers could not find a way to take the lead. The Rangers power play would end the game 0-for-4.
Perreault was on the ice for the final 35 seconds of the third period and would pick up the puck in the low slot, wheel around and fire a wrist shot that was turned aside by Gustavsson. The rookie would end the game with three shots on goal.
The game went to overtime, where the Rangers Vincent Trocheck received a tape-to-tape pass from Panarin in front of the Wild goal and tipped it in to give the Rangers the win.
PANARIN ➡️ TROCHECK FOR THE WIN!!!! pic.twitter.com/JStZWMSnQQ
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) April 3, 2025
The three stars of the game were as follows:
Marcus Johansson, third star for the Wild, who scored a goal and had two assists.
Artemi Panarin, second star, who tallied a goal and two assists.
Vincent Trocheck, first star, for scoring the game-winning goal in overtime.
The Rangers are now tied with the Montreal Canadiens with 79 points but the Habs hold onto the second NHL wild card spot in the Eastern Conference because they have one game in hand on the Rangers.
The Blueshirts’ next game is on April 5 at 12:30 p.m. ET against the New Jersey Devils. Coverage will be available on ABC and ESPN+.
