National Hockey League
NY Rangers 2, Nashville 1
When: 2:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 2, 2019
Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Referees: Gord Dwyer, Garrett Rank
Linesmen: Kory Nagy, Pierre Racicot
Attendance: 17371

Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves and the visiting New York Rangers held on for a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon.

The Rangers won for the third time in four games and won their second straight following Sunday's ugly 7-4 loss to the Boston Bruins.

Filip Chytil and Ryan Strome scored for the Rangers, who won for the first time this season when scoring less than four goals and played their second straight game without Mika Zibanejad. Zibanejad sat out with an upper-body injury he sustained on a hit by Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

Viktor Arvidsson scored a power-play goal for Nashville, which entered leading the Western Conference with 53 goals. The Predators lost their second straight and were held to one goal for the first time this season.

Nashville backup goaltender Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots, including four in a breathtaking stretch from the 9:42 mark to the 8:31 mark in the final period. He made point-blank saves on Brett Howden, denied Chytil a second goal and then stopped Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Lindgren.

Georgiev was forced to help the Rangers kill off two power plays in the final 5:17. He made saves on Ryan Ellis and Craig Smith after Libor Hajek was called for tripping with 2:21 remaining and his teammates made several defensive plays when Nashville briefly held a 6-on-4 advantage after Saros was pulled with 1:40 remaining.

The Rangers sped their way to a 1-0 lead with 3:55 remaining in the opening period.

Hajek used his stick to pry the puck away from Calle Jarnkrok near the New York net and quickly passed to Chytil. Chytil sped through the neutral zone, untouched, waited for a defender to go down and lifted a wrist shot from near the left faceoff circle by Saros' stick.

The Rangers capitalized on a spotty line change by Nashville to take a 2-0 lead 4:16 into the second.

As three Predators went to the bench, defenseman Tony DeAngelo retrieved the puck and dished it to Jesper Fast. Fast quickly moved the puck to Artemi Panarin, who made a slick cross-ice pass through the crease to Strome, who finished the play.

Nashville halved the deficit on a power play a little over 10 minutes after New York's second goal and did so 16 seconds after Roman Josi hit the post. Arvidsson eluded a defender, turned his back to the net and simply deflected a shot by Filip Forsberg into the net.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
NY Rangers   Nashville
Filip Chytil 1 Points Viktor Arvidsson 1
Filip Chytil 1 Goals Viktor Arvidsson 1
Jesper Fast 1 Assists Filip Forsberg 1
N/A Power Play Goals Viktor Arvidsson 1
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Alexandar Georgiev .970 Save Percentage Juuse Saros .933
Alexandar Georgiev 32 Saves Juuse Saros 28
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
NY Rangers 30 2 0-4 4-5 15 24
Nashville 33 1 1-5 4-4 13 18
Upcoming Games
  • Nashville will play their next game on the road against Detroit. The Predators have a W/L % of .556 after a win and .600 after a loss.
  • NY Rangers will play their next game at home against Ottawa. The Rangers have a W/L % of .500 after a win and .429 after a loss.