Alexis Lafreniere brought victory to his team in overtime. New York Rangers defeated the Calgary Flames 5-4. Lafreniere described what his goal looked like. "It was a hard slap shot [by Zibanejad], and I thought it was going in," Lafreniere said, as quoted by nhl.com "And then I see it coming back in front.
I was behind the net a little bit, just put on the breaks, sprinted to it and tried to score." Zibanejad is satisfied with the team's sacrifice. They did their best, and in the end, Rangers deserved victory just because of their fight.
"You try to prepare as much as you can, try to figure out what's the right way and how you can manage the break and take advantage of the break knowing we have a lot of games and not a whole lot of days left here coming up with a big stretch and pushing for the playoffs," Zibanejad said.
"I thought this was good. Sloppy at times, but overall, I thought it was a great effort and we wanted it." Mangiapane is satisfied with many things about his team, but he believes that they could have done better in certain moments.
"I think we've got to take a lesson here, when we're up 4-3 we've just got to manage the game and play to win," Mangiapane said. "Good job by our guys coming back from those deficits there, but I feel like when we have that lead, we've got to hold on.
We did battle back three times and you want to get the win."
Coaches opinion
Flames coach Darryl Sutter talked about expectations. "I thought they were valiant to come back," -Darryl Sutter said. "And then they tie it." New York coach Gerard Gallant spoke about impressions.
"We had to bounce back and fortunately, Mika buried another one," -Gerard Gallant said. "We were definitely disappointed giving up two goals that quick."
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