The Rangers hadn’t performed towards the Capitals since their season-opening drubbing in Washington on Oct. 13 — a defeat that now appears like a distant reminiscence.
All of the strides the Rangers have taken within the 134 days since that opener have been on full show Thursday night time, after they routed the Capitals 4-1 on the Backyard and leapfrogged the Penguins into second place within the Metropolitan Division within the course of.
Within the first of 17 remaining division matchups on the Rangers’ schedule, the highest line of Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere and Chris Kreider led the way in which, with every skater scoring a objective. Each Lafreniere and Zibanejad posted two-point nights, every recording a objective and an help because the Rangers improved to 33-13-5.
After the Penguins misplaced to the Devils, the Rangers went from some extent behind to some extent forward of Pittsburgh and now path the first-place Hurricanes by simply three factors within the division standings.
“We attempt to say each sport is a giant sport,” stated Zibanejad, who opened the scoring at 12:57 of the primary interval. “However once we haven’t seen that many groups in our division, these are massive video games. They’re enormous. Particularly once we haven’t seen them shortly, that’s win.”
Kreider netted his thirty fourth objective of the season and Barclay Goodrow scored his first since Jan. 28, within the third interval to place the sport out of attain.
Goalie Igor Shesterkin, making his seventh straight begin and fourth in a row for the reason that All-Star break, turned apart 36 of the 37 pictures he confronted to select up his twenty fifth win of the season. Capitals star Alex Ovechkin spoiled Shesterkin’s shutout with simply over a minute left in regulation.
The Rangers’ first line not solely mixed for 3 objectives, however totaled seven pictures on web, 5 blocked pictures and two hits from Lafreniere, who has steadily improved with increasingly more reps on the fitting wing of that unit. After establishing Zibanejad with a slick drop go within the first interval, Lafreniere redirected an extended shot from Ryan Lindgren for the 2-0 lead at 18:48 of the second.
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“He’s performed higher hockey the final 20 video games, for certain,” head coach Gerard Gallant stated of Lafreniere. “I actually like the way in which he performs. He competes laborious and he wasn’t getting the objectives he needed, however tonight was a giant sport for him. He’s performed higher hockey, he’s getting extra possibilities, enjoying a 200-foot sport and that’s what we like.”
The Rangers have been strong within the first interval, matching the Capitals’ tempo and protecting the guests out of the damaging areas of the ice. That allowed the Rangers to take a lead after the opening 20 minutes of a sport for the primary time for the reason that All-Star break.
Lafreniere dropped the puck again to Zibanejad, who unloaded a deadly one-timer for the 1-0 rating at 12:57 for his twentieth objective of the season.
Regardless of having to kill 4 penalties — two of which got here at first of a interval — the Rangers contained the Capitals for a lot of the sport. They didn’t even want the ability play, which has been a serious supply of their offense this season. As a substitute, the Rangers bought it carried out at even energy in convincing vogue.
“Would love to attain 4 five-on-five objectives each sport, however each sport is totally different,” Zibanejad stated. “I assumed our PK got here out massive tonight and clearly Shesty in web and the five-on-five play was good. We talked about attempting to play an entire 60-minute sport and I assumed we did that for essentially the most half.”
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