NEW YORK – The Rangers have been playing better since the holiday break, but for that to matter, results must be achieved. This was achieved on Thursday evening against the New Jersey Devils, a rival team at the top of the table that New York had knocked out in their last meeting.

“I think we’re starting to reclaim our identity a little bit,” said Sam Carrick, the hero of the 3-2 overtime win.

“When we go to the games we feel ready,” added goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin. “We have changed our attitude. We’re just playing our game.”

That meant playing responsible defense against New Jersey’s dangerous players. It meant a little more physicality and much better decision making. That meant both special teams came through and the team’s key skaters found ways to capitalize.

The win against the Devils was a strong end to a dismal first half. New York has a record of 19-20-2. It’s still a flawed team, but if the Rangers can repeat their performance against New Jersey, a postseason berth is still within reach. The team finds itself back in the difficult middle of the Eastern Conference, four points behind No. 8 Columbus with one game left. Unfortunately for New York, there would still need to be five teams. That’s doable, but it will require more games like Thursday’s and fewer like the ones before the holidays.

“We’re trying to move up the rankings – the two points and the win are the biggest thing,” said coach Peter Laviolette, who liked the Rangers’ defensive play after they gave up too much against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. “You would like to see the game match the result and I actually thought it did.”

Let’s take a look at some takeaways.

An unexpected hero

In playoff hockey, when overtime is played five-on-five and has no time limit, bottom-six forwards get shifts and chances to lead their team to victory. This happens much less often in the regular season. Extra time lasts just five minutes and is played three-on-three, so coaches typically have their most dangerous players on the ice for almost the entire game.

With Filip Chytil out (upper-body injury), Laviolette saw an opportunity to add another center in overtime. Halfway through he sent Carrick, a fourth player, over the boards. The 32-year-old pushed a puck away from New Jersey’s Jack Hughes to give the Rangers a two-on-one win. Reilly Smith grabbed the ball and noticed that the Devils’ Timo Meier had to defend the rush – a task that is unusual for strikers. Meier gave Smith a wide passing lane, and the winger took advantage and fed Carrick for a one-timer. Carrick sent the puck past Jacob Markstrom to end the game.

Artemi Panarin called Carrick a hard-working, honest player. His goal fired up the Rangers, he said.

“He played really good hockey for us,” Laviolette said. “He hits and does a lot of the dirty work in the defensive zone. When a guy like that scores a goal, you’re really happy for him.”

On the other side of the ice, Shesterkin wasn’t surprised.

“He always scores really well with me in training,” joked the goalkeeper.

A dominant night on special teams

The last time these two teams met, New Jersey made fun of the Rangers’ usually strong penalty kill, scoring three goals in four attempts. New York sorted that out on its own ice. The Devils failed to get a shot on their first power play attempt, and Shesterkin stopped a rebound attempt by Dawson Mercer shortly after it ended. New Jersey was more dangerous on the second power play after the Rangers had too many players on the ice – a mental mistake that coaches hate. Meier hit the crossbar on the Devils’ best chance, but the puck stayed out and Shesterkin made three saves in the two-minute span.

The Rangers continued their strong performance for the rest of the game. The Devils didn’t score in 6:55 of power play time, and Shesterkin only had to make four saves on the kill all night. New York also created a dangerous shorthanded chance in the second period, but it didn’t end well. Hughes released the puck along the blue line, leading to a two-on-zero rush for Smith and a trailing Vincent Trocheck. Smith forgot the breakaway attempt and instead dropped a pass to Trocheck, whose shot missed.

“I tried to pull the goalie aside and get him back to (Trocheck),” Smith said. “I think the goalkeeper did a good job reading it and pushing it back.”

When the Rangers were on the power play, Adam Fox proved that good things happen when he shoots the puck. The defender’s shooting percentage has dropped this season and he entered the game with just one goal, an empty-net goal. That changed in the first period when Trocheck won a face-off cleanly. Fox grabbed possession and fired a slap shot from the blue line.

“Bombed away,” Laviolette said.

The puck deflected off Nico Hischier’s stick and past Markström.

New York’s power play scored again on its second chance of the game. The Rangers earned an early chance with another shot from Fox – again, good things often happen when he shoots – and Panarin later sank the rebound off a shot from Mika Zibanejad. Zibanejad is on a five-game point streak.

The Devils got two shorthanded chances on a Rangers power play in the third period, which ended early with a slash by Zibanejad, but Shesterkin saved them. It was an imperfect final sequence to a good night of special teams play.

“We talked about it real quick before the game: Special teams can 100 percent make a difference within a hockey game,” Laviolette said. “If you are successful at both, your chances of winning the hockey game increase dramatically. That was a perfect example tonight.”

Something about New York

New York got the last laugh against Hughes by forcing the overtime turnover, but the Devils star once again spent a game making life difficult for the Rangers. He redirected a Brett Pesce shot past Shesterkin for a second-half goal and picked up an assist on a Jesper Bratt goal later in the period.

In 23 regular season games against the Rangers, Hughes scored 16 goals and 28 points. That corresponds to a pace of 57 goals and 100 points. The 23-year-old Hughes has never scored more than 11 goals (against the New York Islanders) or 19 points (against the Washington Capitals) against any other team in his career.

In addition to his regular season numbers, Hughes also scored three goals in seven playoff games against New York.

Matt Rempe and Shesterkin return

The crowd cheered as Matt Rempe stepped onto the ice for his first shift. The polarizing winger was banned for eight games for a dangerous hit on Miro Heiskanen and said at the start of the game that he needed to play smarter. He gave the Rangers 7:47 of ice time without committing a penalty. Enforcer Kurtis MacDermid played for the Devils, but the two didn’t drop the gloves.

“Gave us good minutes and get the puck behind us, try to play physical,” Laviolette said.

Rempe’s biggest mistake came in the second period when Mercer won a puck from him and passed it to the always dangerous Hughes, who passed back to Mercer in the slot for a dangerous one-timer. The Rangers managed to temporarily escape danger, but Dougie Hamilton beat Will Cuylle with a direct hit in the neutral zone, winning the ball and leading to Bratt’s goal.

Shesterkin had not played since suffering an upper-body injury on December 30th. Laviolette liked the Rangers’ defense in front of him and had a lighter load in his first game back. According to Natural Stat Trick, he finished above expectations with 21 saves and 1.56 goals saved.

Short thoughts

• The K’Andre Miller-Will Borgen defensive pairing hasn’t worked together seamlessly since the Rangers acquired Borgen last month, but had a strong night against the Devils. The Rangers dominated the shot share on the ice with them. Miller played with a little more physicality and Borgen put two shots on net. Since the holiday break he has had at least one shot on goal in every game.

“I love the fact that he shoots the puck,” Laviolette said. “It’s just the simplest of offenses.”

• Arthur Kaliyev made his Rangers debut and played 8:31 minutes of relatively limited event hockey. The Rangers claimed him off waivers from Los Angeles on Monday. Thursday was his first NHL game of the season; He missed the first half with a broken collarbone.

“It’s good to get him in there,” Laviolette said. “Arty has been out for a long time with an injury, so I think it will take him a minute to get back up to speed, but he can skate, he can move the puck.”

(Top photo of Sam Carrick celebrating his winner: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)