made his NHL debut<\/a> in a youth-infused 6-1 win over the Blackhawks on Friday night, bringing the rookie count in the Rangers lineup to six amid the club\u2019s youth movement as part of a larger evaluation period for the entire organization.\u00a0<\/p>\nThere was a lot of young blood on the ice between the Rangers and Blackhawks, the second- and third-worst teams in the NHL that are only competing for better draft lottery odds at this point in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rangers\u2019 youth undoubtedly shined the brightest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re all hungry,\u201d rookie goalie Dylan Garand said after capturing his first NHL win in his second career start. \u201cThis is, for some of us, our opportunity. Guys like me and [Adam S\u00fdkora], we\u2019ve been playing in Hartford for a long time and we finally get to play games. We\u2019re hungry and we\u2019re excited to try and help this team win in any way we can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortescue notched his first point \u2014 a secondary assist \u2014 in his debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sykora scored his first NHL goal in his first game at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Garand has stopped 63 of the first 66 shots he\u2019s faced through his first two NHL starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matthew Robertson notched the fifth goal of his career while skating in his 29th straight game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Sykora scores during the Rangers-Blackhawks game on March 26, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
And Jaroslav Chmelar was relentless on his way to earning his first NHL assist on Jonny Brodzinski\u2019s second-period score.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The win snapped a season-high six-game losing streak for the Rangers, who are drinking in the youngsters\u2019 energy to try to end this lost season on an encouraging note.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see the enthusiasm that the young kids bring to the lineup,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said after the Rangers\u2019 largest win at home this season. \u201cI think it\u2019s infectious with our veteran guys. Obviously, excited for them. There were some milestones\u2026It\u2019s just fun. I\u2019m happy for the players. To see the positive energy around the group was great to see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew Fortescue skates with the puck during the Rangers-Blackhawks game on March 26, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
After the game, Garand spoke like a player who knows he\u2019s ready for the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old netminder exuded palpable confidence after impressing in his first two NHL starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Garand saved all three shots on goal from 2023 first overall pick Connor Bedard in the first period Friday. While his first win came against an easier opponent, he looked composed even in the shootout loss to the Jets last weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI thought he looked really solid in there, and that\u2019s the second game in a row I felt that way so,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cIt\u2019s two really good starts for him and I\u2019m happy for him because I know how hard he\u2019s worked to get to this point. It\u2019s great for our team, it\u2019s great for our organization\u2026 The feeling I\u2019ve gotten behind the bench in the two starts that he\u2019s had is that he\u2019s completely in control and he has good composure in there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rangers have been able to work Garand in amid Jonathan Quick\u2019s upper-body injury, but the backup netminder is supposedly nearing a return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked if Garand had earned himself some more starts over the final nine games of the season, Sullivan said that would be \u201ca fair statement just based on his performance to this point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dylan Garand makes a save during the Rangers-Blackhawks game on March 26, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this moves forward, when eventually we get a healthy Quickie back, I think [Chris Drury] and I will sit and probably have a conversation around it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of all the milestone moments that unfolded Friday night, the Rangers seemed especially overjoyed for Sykora.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sullivan noted that the reaction from the Rangers bench, when Sykora buried Will Cuylle\u2019s feed past Chicago goalie Arvid Soderblom, was indicative of the way he\u2019s viewed as a person in the locker room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sykora\u2019s energy is simply infectious, Sullivan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something I\u2019ll remember for the rest of my life,\u201d Garand said. \u201cSo glad to do it with a guy like Syky. I know him really well and I can speak on behalf of the guys from Hartford, we\u2019re all so proud of him and so happy for him. He deserves it. He\u2019s such a great guy, like, we all love him. It\u2019s awesome to share this moment with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just call them the Baby Blueshirts.\u00a0 Drew Fortescue made his NHL debut in a youth-infused 6-1 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,4823,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-549800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-new-york-rangers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}