NEW YORK _ Unhappy with their performance Sunday against Vegas, the slumping Rangers made up for it in a big way with a commanding third-period comeback Tuesday night that gave them a 3-1 victory over the red-hot Anaheim Ducks.
Wearing their road white jerseys as visiting Anaheim wore a retro Mighty Ducks of Anaheim look, the Rangers, who trailed 1-0 entering the third period, got goals from Vlad Namestnikov, Kevin Hayes and Filip Chytil to win their first game since Dec. 8, while handing the Ducks only their second loss in the last 11 games.
Hayes scored the winner, shorthanded, on a breakaway with 40.0 seconds remaining, as his shot was stopped by Ducks goalie Chad Johnson, but then leaked over the goal line for Hayes' ninth goal of the season. Chytil added the empty-netter with 18.6 seconds left to seal the result.
Alexandar Georgiev, starting in goal to give Henrik Lundqvist a rare night off, made 14 mostly routine saves _ just one in the third period, as the Rangers outshot Anaheim 14-1 in the third period to improve their record to 15-13-5. They are off until Saturday, when they travel to Toronto to face the Maple Leafs, then return home Sunday for their final game before the Christmas break, against Philadelphia.
Namestnikov, one of the more energetic Rangers all night, tied the game with his fourth goal of the season, finishing a Brett Howden pass from the left wing from the high slot at 9:52. For Namestnikov, it was a nice reward after he had been attacked by Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf and challenged to a fight after trying to jam in a rebound late in the first period. Somehow, Namestnikov, who was only doing his job on that play, got the same four-minute, double roughing minor penalty as Getzlaf did.
Chytil was penalized for goalie interference for running into Johnson with 2:35 left, and he was in the box when Hayes broke out up the left side on his way to scoring the game-winner.
Georgiev started in his first game back after going down to AHL Hartford and playing in five games in a 10-day span.
"I thought he got better as his games went on," Rangers coach David Quinn said of Georgiev's time in Hartford. "He got into a rhythm. One of the reasons he went down there was to get into a rhythm and play, we knew he was going to come back and play some games. We kind of had it mapped out what was going to happen over the last week or 10 days, so it made a lot of sense to send him down to get some games in."
Quinn said Georgiev not only needs to play games at the AHL level, but at the NHL level, too. Both for his own development and also to be ready in case anything were to happen to Lundqvist. And through two periods, Georgiev was solid, stopping 13 of 14 shots. The only puck that got past him in the first 40 minutes was one that was deflected in by his teammate, Mika Zibanejad, who dropped down to block an attempted feed to the slot from Anaheim's Pontus Aberg, who was behind the goal line. The puck hit Zibanejad and ricocheted in at 14:09 of the second period to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the Rangers were generating little against Johnson, who was playing his first game in goal for the team since being claimed off waivers from St. Louis on Dec. 11. The Rangers managed just 10 shots on goal in the first two periods _ four of those coming from the fourth line (Boo Nieves and Lias Andersson with two each).
