The Jets treated Tuesday night’s matchup with the Rangers like a litmus test against their counterpart in the East.
The Rangers, on the other hand, couldn’t help but approach it for what it was: Their sixth game in nine days.
It played out on the Madison Square Garden ice accordingly, with Winnipeg capturing a 4-2 win over the Rangers to at least temporarily leapfrog the Canucks for first place in the Western Conference before Vancouver’s matchup with the Sabres later in the night.
The Rangers’ loss would minimize their Metropolitan Division lead over the Hurricanes, if they hold on to beat the Islanders, to a mere two points.
And there’s this: The rest of the month isn’t getting any easier for the Blueshirts.
There was apparently some build up to this game for the Jets, who carried a two-game win streak into the matchup in Manhattan.
“The big test is Tuesday night,” Jets coach Rick Bowness, who was not behind the Winnipeg bench for the game due to a minor procedure, told reporters after their win over the Blue Jackets on Sunday. “We’re playing one of, if not, the top team in the league…It’s the Rangers. We know we haven’t played as well against the top teams lately, as we can, as we’re capable of.”
Coming off a hellish week with two sets of back-to-back games, the Rangers were seemingly still recuperating from a five-game gauntlet of an Eastern-Conference swing.
Competitive contests against the Devils, Hurricanes, Lightning, Penguins and Islanders were hard to come down from, especially with the Bruins and the Panthers staring them in the face at the end of this week on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
The Rangers’ fight didn’t really come out until the end of the final frame, when Alexis Lafreniere put the puck away off a block in front to make it a one-goal game with 1:54 left in regulation.
There wasn’t enough time, however, for the Rangers to notch the equalizer before Mark Schiefele completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal.