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tRY IT NOWThe self-inflicted mistakes have been perpetual for the Rangers this season.
But a persistent drive allowed the Blueshirts to snag a 5-4 win over the Wild behind Vincent Trocheck’s goal in overtime Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, which effectively pushed the club into a points tie with the Canadiens and back on the cusp of the second wild-card spot.
The Rangers competed, answering almost every Wild goal they had to before Trocheck’s OT winner.
That type of effort must be a daily requirement considering where the Rangers are at, but it’s rarely going to make up for costly turnovers, ill-advised passes or defensive-zone mistakes.
“I thought we played really well,” said Trocheck, who gave Artemi Panarin a backboard with his stick on the game-winner. “First period, I thought we were all over them. Second period, they had a little bit more of a push, but I liked how resilient we were whenever they went up. We stuck with it. To get it in overtime is huge.”
There were an abundance of chances to take the lead at the end of regulation, including a 24-second five-on-three power play and the subsequent man advantage.
The Rangers couldn’t capitalize on another power play they earned with 4:08 left on the clock.
It was an up-and-down night for the Rangers as a whole, but especially for K’Andre Miller, whose turnovers have seemingly ended up in the back of the Rangers net more often than not this season.
The Rangers celebrates after their 5-4 overtime win over the Wild on April 2, 2025. JASON SZENES/NEW YORK POSTThe 25-year-old defenseman was on for three goals against, but also scored one of his own to make it a 2-2 game early in the second period.
The Rangers also lost their one-goal lead at the start of the third period, when Miller backhanded the puck into the middle of the zone for the Wild’s taking.
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Miller did draw the last two penalties of regulation to put the Rangers on the power play, but they weren’t able to take advantage on any of their four looks Wednesday night.
The Rangers have now scored just twice in their last 41 power-play opportunities over their last 15 games.
Artemi Panarin celebrates his goal with Brennan Othmann during the Rangers win over the Wild. JASON SZENES/NEW YORK POST“It’s moved around quite a bit, it’s not like we’re sitting here stuck on one thing,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of the power play. “We’re moving it around, trying different options and we work on it in practice. It’s an opportunity to make a difference in a game like tonight and we’ll continue to look at it and look at the personnel that we have and what we can do to make that effective inside of a game like tonight.”
“[Special teams has] been a real positive for us for a long time, but we’re in a little bit of a funk right now with it and we’ll have to get out of it.”
Getting off to an energetic and fast start, the Rangers funnelled 11 shots on goal in comparison to the Wild’s one through the first eight minutes.
Igor Shesterkin makes a save on a shot by Wild left winger Marcus Foligno during the second period of the Rangers’ win. JASON SZENES/NEW YORK POSTOn Minnesota’s second shot of the period, however, Gustav Nyquist gave his team a 1-0 lead while on the power play.
Miller’s stick broke before Trocheck flubbed a clearing attempt that had the rest of the Rangers penalty killers loaded on the left side of the zone in anticipation of a potential rush opportunity.
That left Marcus Johansson all alone to feed Nyquist on the doorstep.
Chris Kreider scores a goal during the Rangers’ overtime win over the Wild. JASON SZENES/NEW YORK POSTAfter Braden Schneider cashed in on a long rebound with zero hesitation to even the score at one-all, Brock Faber’s long shot from the top of the right circle later took an unfortunate deflection off the stick of Gabe Perreault, who made his NHL debut Wednesday night, to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead.
The second period swung in the Rangers’ favor, with the home team scoring three times despite spending a considerable amount of time defending in its own zone.
The Rangers were able to take their first lead of the night after Declan Chisholm fumbled the puck in front of Minnesota’s net later in the middle frame.
Mika Zibanejad tries to control the puck while being defended during the Rangers’ overtime win over the Wild. JASON SZENES/NEW YORK POSTChris Kreider was right there to backhand it in for his 20th goal of the season and first five-on-five score since Jan. 19.
Despite a prime opportunity to pad their lead on their first power play of the night, Trocheck held onto the puck for too long before Nyquist forced him into a neutral-zone turnover that sprung the Wild for a shorthanded rush the other way.
Marcus Johansson buried the third equalizer of the game at the 9:50 mark.
“You’d like to clean up a couple things,” Laviolette said. “But overall, came out on the attack. I thought we defended OK, just some puck decisions at times. We needed a win, guys found a way to do that. It was good to get a W in a game that went up and down and kind of went back-and-forth.”






