Rangers’ depth saves scuffling stars again with Alex Wennberg’s Game 3 heroics

NHL

By Ethan Sears

SUNRISE, Fla. — The through line all playoffs for the Rangers’ third line — and the through line since being acquired at the trade deadline for Alex Wennberg — was that the analytics said a lot of good things and the actual on-ice results didn’t say much at all.

Not anymore.

Wennberg, whom the Rangers sent a second-round pick along with a 2025 fifth-rounder to Seattle to obtain in early March, broke a scoring drought that dated all the way back to March 19 at the best possible time for the Rangers on Sunday evening.

With the Rangers having let a two-goal lead go to waste and spending much of the third period under siege, Game 3 of these Eastern Conference Final felt like it was going the wrong way until Wennberg got free off a faceoff and set himself up in front of the net.

He tipped in Ryan Lindgren’s shot to steal a 5-4 victory for the Rangers in overtime and a 2-1 lead in the series with it.

“I feel like this is a team that it doesn’t matter who’s the hero, doesn’t matter who does it,” Wennberg said. “We’re all playing for one another. Maybe I haven’t put up the similar points but as a team, everything we do together and we have an end goal. So obviously it’s a great feeling, good for the confidence but I’m just happy about the team.”

That has very much been the mantra in this conference final, and it was again on Sunday when Wennberg scored the game-winner and fourth-liner Barclay Goodrow put up a pair of goals.

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Igor Shesterkin’s usual heroics aside, the Rangers have not been getting production out of their horses in this series.

Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin have a point apiece, neither of which came on a goal.

Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad have yet to do even that.

The Rangers are living the mantra that it doesn’t matter who the hero is.

Wennberg, going into Sunday, might have been the least-likely player on the team to play that role, given his limited offensive production since joining the Rangers.

That does not mean he has not been valuable.

“Really, really good work by him in all zones. Really smart player,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “He’s come in and he’s given us exactly what we needed at the time and what we were hoping for.”

Goodrow has already gotten his flowers in the series by virtue of scoring the overtime winner on Friday night in New York.

But this was more reinforcement that No. 21 can provide some offense when needed, too.

“He certainly has been a guy who’s put up some numbers in his career and big goals and big opportunities in playoffs past,” Laviolette said of Goodrow. “So the fact that he’s doing it now, I don’t think it necessarily surprises anybody because he works for what he gets.”