Preview: Rangers Wrap Up Back-to-Back Set Against Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Looked at from a distance, the Rangers will hit the ice on Saturday night in Columbus looking to build on a five-game points streak (4-0-1) and return to the win column after earning a point but seeing their four-game winning streak snapped in Detroit on Friday.
Up close, though, the Rangers will be looking to scrub away the frustration of how Friday's game turned on them in the third period.
It is the silver lining of having to play games on back-to-back nights: You get a chance to erase frustration right away.
The Rangers held a two-goal lead entering the third period Friday night, but Justin Abdelkader scored early in the third and Andreas Athanasiou scored late before setting up Dylan Larkin's winner in the waning seconds of overtime.
"I think it's less an individual, more as a team - you learn how you need to play with the lead," Marc Staal said. "How to be confident with the lead, be the aggressor when you can be, take the play to them. I thought we did too much sitting back, and that's something that as a team we have to take from this, and next time be better.

The result overshadowed a strong first 40 minutes from the Rangers along with a power play that got goals from a pair of righty defensemen, and scored multiple goals for the third game this season. Kevin Shattenkirk and Neal Pionk had put the Rangers in front 2-0 on man-advantage goals 40 seconds apart late in the second, Pionk's tally extending his goals streak to three games.
"I think we've got to look especially to that first 20 (minutes) there - we played with pace, we were aggressive, we held onto pucks," said Mika Zibanejad, who assisted on Pionk's goal. "That's what we didn't do in the third, we didn't possess the puck enough in the third down there in their end. That's something we've got to get back to (Saturday)."
David Quinn had said on Thursday that his plan was to give each of his goaltenders a start in the back-to-back, and with Henrik Lundqvist making 28 saves on Friday, that would mean turning to Alexandar Georgiev in Columbus - though Quinn added the caveat, "I'm a day-to-day guy … that could change."
In his last two starts, Georgiev is 2-0 with a 1.92 goals-against average and .941 save percentage.
The Blue Jackets - also playing the tail end of a back-to-back, having traveled home following their 2-1 victory in Washington on Friday night - could turn to Joonas Korpisalo in goal. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 33 Capitals shots in the win, and Anthony Duclair, who signed with Columbus in July and is on his fourth team since being drafted by the Rangers in the third round in 2013, scored the game-winner, his seventh of the season (four of them on power plays), tying Josh Anderson for the team lead. Duclair had 11 goals in 56 games for Arizona and Chicago a season ago.
Korpisalo is unbeaten in regulation this season, with a 4-0-1 record but a less-polished 3.80 GAA and .884 save percentage. He was pulled from a start against Detroit on Oct. 30 after three goals on seven shots.

LINEUP LAST TIME OUT

90 Namestnikov - 93 Zibanejad - 89 Buchnevich
20 Kreider - 13 Hayes - 23 Spooner
26 Vesey - 21 Howden - 17 Fast
50 Andersson - 72 Chytil - 95 Lettieri
18 Staal - 44 Pionk
76 Skjei - 77 DeAngelo
42 Smith - 22 Shattenkirk
40 Georgiev
30 Lundqvist

NUMBERS GAME

The Rangers will play their 19th game all-time in Columbus. None of the first 18 has reached overtime (Rangers are 9-9-0).
The Blue Jackets scored both their goals in Friday's win on power plays. Entering the game, Columbus' power play had been at the bottom of the league, scoring at an 11.9 percent clip.
Both teams are 0-1-1 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Zibanejad carries a three-game points streak into Columbus, and has 11 points in his last 11 games against the Blue Jackets. He set a career high with three assists in the team's matchup last Nov. 6, a 5-3 Ranger win at the Garden.
Artemi Panarin scored in all four of these teams' games last season, including a hat trick on March 20, and has 10 goals in eight career meetings with the Rangers. Panarin, who turned 27 on Oct. 30, has two career hat tricks, both against the Blueshirts.