![\"Goaltender](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/33-new-york-rangers-defends-124214064.jpg\")
Goaltender Dylan Garand #33 of the New York Rangers defends the net during the second period against the Jets on March 22, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\nIt was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it\u2019s been All About The Kids for months.<\/p>\n
Goalie Dylan Garand was informed after the AHL Wolf Pack\u2019s game Wednesday that he would make his NHL debut in four days against the Jets at Madison Square Garden, which filled the Blueshirts lineup with at least one rookie at every position in their 3-2 shootout loss to Winnipeg on Sunday.<\/p>\n
It was certainly a first game to remember for Garand.<\/p>\n
The workload \u2014 35 saves on 37 shots \u2014 resembled more of a cannon ball into the deep end than dipping his toe.<\/p>\n
His first ever shootout opponent? Perennial 30-goal scorer Kyle Connor.<\/p>\n
The second? Gabriel Vilardi, who already scored a power-play goal on him earlier in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was awesome,\u201d Garand said after both Jets skaters capitalized in the shootout to hand him his first NHL loss. \u201cIt was pretty surreal. I really just tried to be present and take it all in. It was everything you could ever hope and dream of. It sucks to not get the win for the guys, but it was a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goaltender Dylan Garand #33 of the New York Rangers defends the net during the second period against the Jets on March 22, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Garand held his own in a matchup between the 2024 and 2025 Presidents\u2019 Trophy winners, who both face-planted in their subsequent seasons.<\/p>\n
Looking steady between the pipes and only conceding goals he couldn\u2019t do much about, Garand even stonewalled Connor on a short-handed breakaway in the second period to keep the Rangers within one goal at the time.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old netminder had been waiting for this since he made his AHL debut with the Wolf Pack on Feb. 21, 2021.<\/p>\n
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It took just under five and a half years, since the Rangers drafted him 103rd overall in 2020, for Garand to get his moment. There were certainly times, like now with Jonathan Quick banged up, when the organization could\u2019ve looked to Garand but opted to go with the more experienced goaltender in their system.<\/p>\n
Even earlier this season, the Rangers recalled Spencer Martin \u2014 signed out of Russia\u2019s Kontinental Hockey League in November \u2014 instead of Garand. It\u2019s been a particularly difficult season in Hartford, which likely played a role in the decision to bring up Martin.<\/p>\n
With the playoffs out of reach and the Letter 2.0 out in the open, however, the Rangers decided the time for Garand was now.<\/p>\n
![\"Tye](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/tye-kartye-24-new-york-124213448.jpg\")
Tye Kartye #24 of the Rangers celebrates after he scores during the second period against the Jets on March 22, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting to make my NHL debut my whole life,\u201d Garand said. \u201cWhen they tell you you\u2019re actually going to play, it\u2019s pretty cool. It\u2019s kind of like, \u2018OK, this is it. Here we go.\u2019 I feel like I\u2019ve been waiting for this for a long time, and I felt pretty ready for it. It was a lot of days [since I found out], but it was nice that they gave me lots of heads up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTook care of my family\u2019s flights and hotels and stuff like that, which was pretty stressful the first couple days. I had five [people at MSG]: My mom, my dad, my stepmom and then my goalie coach back from Kamloops and his daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rangers were able to answer each Jets goal with one of their own throughout regulation.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg regained the lead on Vilardi\u2019s power-play goal at the 6:43 mark of the second period, but the Rangers answered with one of their own to even the score 2-2.<\/p>\n
Mika Zibanejad blasted a one-timer from his sweet spot in the circle, which tied the Swede with Adam Graves for the fourth-most goals in franchise history with 280. The Rangers survived the final 20 minutes of regulation, partially thanks to the 11 saves Garand made.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was terrific,\u201d Sullivan said of Garand\u2019s debut. \u201cI thought he looked really solid. Calm demeanor in there, tracking pucks well, rebound control was great. He made some big saves for us. I thought he had a really strong game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it\u2019s been All About…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,541,539,319,47243],"class_list":["post-171515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}