talked at length<\/a> about former power forward Todd Bertuzzi? That was a Todd Bertuzzi type of goal (even though Carcone is six inches shorter and 47 pounds lighter).<\/p>\nAgainst the odds, the Mammoth survived a late penalty and forced overtime, where Sean Durzi got the chance to play hero. More on that in a second.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from the first shift, the guys were on it,\u201d said Mammoth head coach Andr\u00e9 Tourigny. \u201cThat paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tidbits and takeawaysSean Durzi\u2019s on a tear<\/p>\n
Late in the third period, with the score knotted, Sean Durzi was assessed a hooking penalty that he vehemently disagreed with. Mika Zibanejad was holding his stick, he argued.<\/p>\n
Hockey referees have seldom, if ever, been known to change their minds, though, and regardless of what actually happened, Durzi was forced to sit and watch his team play a man short for what may have felt like the longest two minutes of his life.<\/p>\n
But after scoring the game-winning goal 1:06 into overtime, he can\u2019t be too upset about the call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think his head might have grown three sizes,\u201d joked Carcone after the game. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy for him. He deserves it. He\u2019s a big part of our team and creates a lot of offense, so it\u2019s nice to see him get one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durzi\u2019s goal bumped him up to 10 points in his last 12 games. Those are good numbers for players of any position, but the fact that he\u2019s a defenseman makes it extra special. With significant injuries both this season and last, he hasn\u2019t always had the runway to get a good streak going.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has that passion, that grit, that desire to excel,\u201d Tourigny said of Durzi after the game. \u201cThose are intangibles you don\u2019t always see from the outside. … He has no retreat in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a tough month for the Durzi family. Sean\u2019s grandfather, who never missed a game, passed away just before the Christmas break. Not that it\u2019s any consolation, but it\u2019s nice to see Durzi having success in this trying period of time.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I) said a little prayer in the penalty box, hoping he had our back there, and then to get that OT winner for him,\u201d Durzi said. \u201cAgain, I\u2019m going to try not to get emotional, but he was an important guy in my life, so it was nice to get that one for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Igor Shesterkin\u2019s injury<\/p>\n
Few goalies in the world have been better than Igor Shesterkin since he came into the league at the beginning of the decade. Rangers management agreed with that statement when they handed him the most lucrative contract ever seen by an NHL goaltender in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Given that information, you can imagine the fan base\u2019s concern when he had to be helped off the ice on Monday.<\/p>\n
There was debate online as to whether Mammoth forward JJ Peterka touched Shesterkin as he attempted to stop in front of the Rangers\u2019 net. Either way, Shesterkin\u2019s bodyweight was the main factor, as he fell backwards with his right knee bent.<\/p>\n
The injury happened just 13 minutes into the game, and he did not return. <\/p>\n
Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan said after the game that Shesterkin is being evaluated for a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n
Goal of the gameSean Durzi\u2019s OT winner<\/p>\n
The pretty passing that preceded this goal stands out, but don\u2019t overlook the puck protection from Lawson Crouse. If that gets poked away from him, it\u2019s an odd-man rush the other way. Instead, he makes a good play and it ends up in the net shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through their first two seasons in the NHL, Utah will remain undefeated in the state of New York.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,3328,35,1442,5190,5193,4,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-393009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-news-feed-national","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkrangers","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-rangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115846392338363371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}