Accessing The Impact Of Roslovic Against Rangers Hope Pittsburgh Penguins Should Hold On Their Interest.
stretch of alternating good and bad performances continued tonight, as the Columbus Blue Jackets earned a 4-2 win over the league-leading New York Rangers.
Matt Rempe has made a splash in his NHL debut this week, with two fights and 27 PIM in his first four games.
Prior to this one, he challenged Mathieu Olivier during warmups. On their first shift together, Olivier obliged. Despite giving up half a foot to the 6’7″ rookie, Olivier landed the bigger punches and earned the takedown.
The Blue Jackets got the first power play of the game after Jacob Trouba held Justin Danforth. Just as the advantage was about to expire, Dmitri Voronkov scored off of a beautiful pass from Kirill Marchenko. That’s the Russian rookie’s 16th goal of the season.
Speaking of Russians, the Rangers have a pretty good on of their own who you might remember, and he tied the game late in the first period.
Ivan Provorov’s clearing attempt was intercepted by Adam Fox, who was able to pass behind Provorov to Artemi Panarin. Despite a tight angle to the net and a very narrow space between the post and Elvis Merzlikins’ helmet, Panarin’s shot went in.
Just 18 seconds into the second period, the Blue Jackets regained the lead. This time Marchenko and Voronkov traded roles, with the latter getting the assist and the former getting the goal.
Marchenko showed patience as Jonathan Quick (CBJ legend) came out from the net to challenge the shot. Marchenko deked and used the extra space to shoot the puck around Quick’s right leg.
Midway through the period, Provorov took a tripping penalty but the Jackets made a great effort to kill it off.
Less a minute later, however, they gave up another golden opportunity off of a turnover. Jake Bean tried to pass along the blue line to Erik Gudbranson, but the pass ended up in no man’s land halfway between Gudbranson and Yegor Chinakhov.
I think Gudbranson was right not to chase the puck here, since he had no one behind him to cover. However, Adam Edstrom was able to outskate Gudbranson to the net anyway. Edstrom’s attempt to pass to Rempe in the crease deflected off of Bean’s skate instead.
Late in the period, the Jackets added an insurance goal thanks to a 200 foot play from the top line. Gaudreau intercepted a pass in the defensive zone and made a bank pass off the boards to spring Roslovic. Roslovic entered the zone first, but slowed down to let Boone Jenner crash the net and take a defender with him. That gave the Jackets numbers as Provorov came by with no defender and plenty of room to shoot.