After early error, Rangers' Kaapo Kakko makes amends with game-winning goal against Islanders
New York Rangers players celebrate a goal by right wing Kaapo Kakko as New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin looks on in the third period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Kaapo Kakko desperately needed to redeem himself. And with 2:47 remaining in regulation against the Islanders on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, he did.
The 21-year-old Finn had gifted the Islanders a goal in the second period, which briefly earned him a mini-benching. But with the score tied late and the Rangers having just failed to score on yet another power play, Kakko drove the net and banged in a pass from K’Andre Miller to send the Rangers on their way to a 5-3 win in their final game before the NHL’s three-day Christmas break.
“It was a nice pass by Key and I was just going to the net,’’ Kakko said. “I think my game today wasn’t the best this season, so I think I just tried to play simple in the end, like go to the net and good things happen. That was a nice pass by Key — I don’t know if he tried that or just tried to throw it to the net. But it was a nice pass and good goal.’’
Vincent Trocheck’s empty-net goal with 1:32 remaining sealed the result for the Rangers, who finished the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule with a 19-11-5 record.
Though their seven-game winning streak ended Tuesday with a loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh, the Rangers went 8-1 in their last nine games. They will return to action on Tuesday at the Garden against Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
Kakko’s goal was his ninth of the season. He said he was hoping to score a big goal to make up for his error.
“Yeah. I was thinking something like that after the second goal they scored,’’ he said. “Obviously, that was my fault, and I think that happens for everyone. That’s the way you need to think after [a mistake like] that . . . but yeah, it was nice to score a goal like that in the end, especially after a play like that.’’
The mistake had come early in the second period in a 1-1 game when Kakko lost the puck after skating around with it in the Islanders’ zone. He held on to it for a while, weaving his way in and out of traffic, but he didn’t pass it and he didn’t shoot it. Josh Bailey stripped him of the puck and got it to Mathew Barzal, who sped up the ice on a breakaway and scored at 2:39 to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead.
Julien Gauthier, back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the previous two games, tied it at 5:30 of the period, but Alexander Romanov put the Islanders back in front when he fired a shot from the left point through traffic and past goalie Igor Shesterkin at 8:45 of the period. It was Romanov’s first goal as an Islander.
Kakko played only two more shifts in the second period after his mistake, and Gauthier even took his spot on the Kid Line, with Alexis Lafrenière and Filip Chytil, for one shift. But in the third period, coach Gerard Gallant put Kakko back in his regular spot on the right of Lafrenière and Chytil.
“I think a couple of guys on our bench I saw talking to him, and that’s perfect,’’ Gallant said. “You make mistakes, and obviously an important game like it was tonight and to give that goal up, it’s tough on a young player. But I saw [Chris] Kreider and [Barclay] Goodrow down there talking to him, and . . . it’s nice that he finished off the right way.’’
It helped that Goodrow deflected a shot by Gauthier at 3:00 of the third period to tie the score at 3-3 and then set up Kakko’s game-winner.
Goodrow had started the game on the first line with Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, but in the second period, Gallant moved him to the fourth line with Jonny Brodzinski and Gauthier.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
