Saturday, November 2, 2019 02:00 PM (ET)

Georgiev's 32 saves help Rangers edge Predators

Field Level Media
Nov 2, 2019

Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves and the visiting New York Rangers held on for a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon.

The Rangers won for the third time in four games and won their second straight following Sunday's ugly 7-4 loss to the Boston Bruins.

Filip Chytil and Ryan Strome scored for the Rangers, who won for the first time this season when scoring less than four goals and played their second straight game without Mika Zibanejad. Zibanejad sat out with an upper-body injury he sustained on a hit by Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

Viktor Arvidsson scored a power-play goal for Nashville, which entered leading the Western Conference with 53 goals. The Predators lost their second straight and were held to one goal for the first time this season.

Nashville backup goaltender Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots, including four in a breathtaking stretch from the 9:42 mark to the 8:31 mark in the final period. He made point-blank saves on Brett Howden, denied Chytil a second goal and then stopped Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Lindgren.

Georgiev was forced to help the Rangers kill off two power plays in the final 5:17. He made saves on Ryan Ellis and Craig Smith after Libor Hajek was called for tripping with 2:21 remaining and his teammates made several defensive plays when Nashville briefly held a 6-on-4 advantage after Saros was pulled with 1:40 remaining.

The Rangers sped their way to a 1-0 lead with 3:55 remaining in the opening period.

Hajek used his stick to pry the puck away from Calle Jarnkrok near the New York net and quickly passed to Chytil. Chytil sped through the neutral zone, untouched, waited for a defender to go down and lifted a wrist shot from near the left faceoff circle by Saros' stick.

The Rangers capitalized on a spotty line change by Nashville to take a 2-0 lead 4:16 into the second.

As three Predators went to the bench, defenseman Tony DeAngelo retrieved the puck and dished it to Jesper Fast. Fast quickly moved the puck to Artemi Panarin, who made a slick cross-ice pass through the crease to Strome, who finished the play.

Nashville halved the deficit on a power play a little over 10 minutes after New York's second goal and did so 16 seconds after Roman Josi hit the post. Arvidsson eluded a defender, turned his back to the net and simply deflected a shot by Filip Forsberg into the net.

--Field Level Media

Covers 25 Years Logo Established in 1995,
Covers is the world
leader in sports
betting information.
Covers is verified safe by: Evalon Logo GPWA Logo GDPR Logo GeoTrust Logo Evalon Logo