Rangers Best Canucks In Entertaining Battle Between Early-Season Success Stories

Last night an old rivalry was reignited as the New York Rangers took on the Vancouver Canucks in an intense overtime thriller. The spooky battle still has fans in awe.

When you think of storied NHL rivalries, you have to go back 30 years to find games of any real significance between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. In the spring of 1994, the two sides squared off in an intense Stanley Cup Final where the star-studded Rangers squeezed out a one-goal win on home ice in Game 7 to claim their franchise's first championship in 54 years.

They haven't won another one since. And as they enter their 54th year of existence, the Canucks are still looking for their first-ever Stanley Cup. 

With fresh leadership this season — although Rick Tocchet has been on the job several months longer than Peter Laviolette — the Canucks and Rangers are currently in similar situations as they look to bolster their team identities and, ultimately, have more success.

And while the sample size is still small, early returns are good.

Both sides were riding three-game winning streaks as they rolled into Saturday's matchup at Rogers Arena with identical 5-2-0 records.

And while a cross-conference game in late October doesn't telegraph promises of edge-of-your-seat intensity, this one saw emotions start to bubble up.

"It was chippy," said J.T. Miller, who scored his fourth of the year on the power play to tie the game 1-1 late in the second period.

"I personally love playing in them. The crowd's rockin' — doesn't matter if it's home or away, really. It's just fun to be in those types of games and I think it brings the best out of the group.

"It's a good test for the group to see where they're at with a playoff-style game," he continued. "I thought we played a pretty darn good game."

After multiple lead changes, plenty of special-teams play and a four-goal third period, K'Andre Miller blasted a one-timer past Casey DeSmith at 3:48 of overtime to give the Rangers the win.

The goal left the Canucks and the Rogers Arena crowd stunned, as it developed after Elias Pettersson got tangled up with Chris Kreider in the Rangers' zone. And after coming back from 1-0 and 3-2 deficits to earn a point and force the extra frame, the Canucks dominated the overtime despite being on the second half of a back-to-back. 

Vancouver outshot New York 6-2 at 3-on-3, and Andrei Kuzmenko was stoned by countryman Igor Shesterkin less than a minute before Miller's game-winner. 

Leading into Saturday, the Rangers had been cruising through their Western road trip, winning three straight to boost their record for the season to 5-2-0 and outscoring the Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers by a collective margin of 10-2. 

Against the Canucks, they couldn't get much going, except on special teams. Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox both scored on 5-on-3 power plays, and Mika Zibanejad's first of the year came at 5-on-4.

"It was good to show our resilience," said Fox. "I guess you could say we haven't been tested with them scoring in the third or another team, really, when we had the lead. But we battled hard. It was a little bit of a sloppy game, back and forth, power play, penalty kill. But we'll take the two points."

J.T. Miller was 15 months old when Mark Messier hoisted the Stanley Cup at center ice of Madison Square Garden in 1994. But because he was drafted 15th overall by the Blueshirts in 2011 and started his pro career with the organization, "They still hold a special place in my heart," he said Saturday before adding, "It definitely feels better when we beat them, but it was a hard-fought game."

Unwilling to throw shade at the officials despite the non-call in overtime or a too-many-men penalty which led to the Rangers' pivotal third-period 5-on-3, Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet focused instead on his team's stout defensive effort. 

"It was a chess match today," he said. "We didn't give them much, 5-on-5. They got two 5-on-3s and the power play (goals). That was the difference in the game."

The Rangers came into Saturday night with at least one goal with the man advantage in six of their first seven games and an overall success rate of 30.4 percent — fifth-best in the league. 

And though the Canucks were in a two-game drought with the man advantage, they ranked sixth at 28.4 percent.

On Saturday, New York finished 3-for-6 to move up to second place and 34.5 percent. Vancouver was officially 1-for-6 and slipped into a tie for seventh at 25.9 percent, but Carson Soucy's game-tying goal came just 10 seconds after the expiry of Filip Chytil's minor for closing his hand on the puck, with Vancouver maintaining offensive-zone pressure. 

And for the second-straight game, Vancouver also took advantage of their opponent's power play with a shorthanded goal — this one a spectacular individual effort from Tyler Myers.

The Canucks' official attendance numbers are always close to capacity, even when the eye test tells a different story. And for a Saturday night home game against a popular Original Six opponent, many Halloween revellers appeared to have costumed themselves as empty seats.

But even after starting with an 8-1 drubbing of the Edmonton Oilers and a 5-0 shutout of the St. Louis Blues in their two previous home games, the Canucks may have gotten their biggest vote of confidence of the Tocchet era when the fans rose to their feet for a standing ovation at the end of regulation time on Saturday.

"It feels good, and we need them behind us," Tocchet said. "I think they want to believe in something and we're trying to make them believe in something. I think the guys did a nice job for them to believe in us."

Now with 11 points in eight games, Vancouver sits second in the Pacific Division and is in a four-way tie for fifth overall with Toronto, Montreal and Detroit.

The Canucks will try not to turn into pumpkins as they close out their current homestand against the 4-4-0 Nashville Predators on Halloween Tuesday, one week after they took down Andrew Brunette's squad by a 3-2 score at Bridgestone Arena.

With 12 points, the Rangers sit atop the Metropolitan Division and are tied with the Colorado Avalanche for third place overall in the league. They'll try to make a clean sweep of this road trip against the 4-3-1 Winnipeg Jets on Monday before returning to Madison Square Garden for a divisional battle against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.

The Canucks and Rangers will complete their season series on Jan. 8 at Madison Square Garden.