2024-02-23 06:10:02
Alexis Lafrenière scored two goals, Artemi Panarin had three assists and the New York Rangers brutalized their New Jersey rivals on Thursday, crushing the Devils 5-1.
The Rangers thus sign a ninth consecutive victory. This is Rangers’ longest winning streak in the last eight campaigns. They are one win away from matching their longest streaks in their history, which came in 1939-40 and 1972-73.
The Rangers, who haven’t lost since January 26 at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights, are at the top of the Metropolitan Division.
Lafrenière scored his 15th and 16th goals of the season. After 57 games, he has as many goals as last season in 81 games. This is the second time this season that the Quebecer has scored two goals in a match.
Lafrenière took advantage of a turnover to make it 2-0 in the first and made it 4-0 at the end of the second by slipping between the two Devils defenders to rush alone to the goal after a zone entry.
In addition to coming very close to obtaining his second shutout of the season with a 39-save evening, Igor Shesterkin obtained an assist by skilfully restarting the attack on the sequence leading to Chris Kreider’s 29th goal, which brought the score at 3-0 in the second period.
Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring on a power play with his 19th goal of the season and Vincent Trocheck made it 5-0 with his 20th.
Jack Hughes then deprived Shesterkin of the shutout by scoring his 18th of the campaign with 2:07 on the clock.
The Devils had the upper hand 40-18 in terms of shots on goal, but that did not prevent them from losing for the third time in four games.
Young Rangers colossus Matt Rempe, who was playing his third NHL game, was ejected from the game after 2:25 of play for a hit to the head of Nathan Bastian.
Bastian remained in the match, but his struggles were not over.
He was roughed up again by the Rangers at the start of the second when he dropped the gloves in front of Jacob Trouba after taking a solid hit from the Blueshirts captain. Trouba had the upper hand in the fight and the Devils forward went to the penalty box with a bloody nose.
Ovechkin extends his streak
Alexander Ovechkin collected a point in his 10th straight game to help the Washington Capitals dispose of the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 5-3.
During this stretch, Ovechkin collected 14 points. The Russian forward, who had scored eight goals in his last eight games, had an assist Thursday night on an empty-net goal. He became the 12th player aged 38 or older to have a streak of at least 10 consecutive games with at least one point.
Connor McMichael hit the target twice, while Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Anthony Mantha and Rasmus Sandin also scored to help the Capitals sign a third straight victory.
Washington held a two-goal lead after 40 minutes of play, but goals from Nick Paul and Tyler Motte allowed the Lightning to bring everyone back to square one.
Sandin, however, restored the lead to the Capitals with 4:59 remaining in the third period and McMichael completed the scoring into an empty net.
Recalled Wednesday, Pierrick Dubé was not in uniform for the Capitals.
Capitals forward TJ Oshie left the game in the third period due to an injury not related to contact with another player.
Nikita Kucherov, the circuit’s top scorer, assisted on a Brandon Hagel goal and now has 95 points. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots for the Lightning.
Kane decides in overtime
Patrick Kane scored 3:42 into overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin threw a back pass to Kane, who quickly fired a shot past Justus Annunen. It was his 10th goal of the campaign.
Larkin scored the Red Wings’ other goal. Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring for the Avalanche.
The victory ended the Red Wings’ 10-game losing streak against the Avalanche. The Michigan club hadn’t won in nearly eight years against Colorado, which dominated 47-21 in goals during that stretch.
Annunen blocked 28 pucks. At the other end of the ice, Alex Lyon made 30 saves.
The Red Wings have now won three straight and are 4-0-1 in their last five home games. The Avalanche are 1-4-1 in their last six road games.
Kadri knocks out Bruins in overtime
Nazem Kadri scored in overtime and the Calgary Flames defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2.
Kadri collected the puck after a save from teammate Jacob Markstrom, crossed the ice, and beat Linus Ullmark with a wrist shot with 1:04 left in the overtime period.
Oliver Kylington and Martin Pospisil also scored for the Flames, who won their two duels against the Bruins this season. They defeated them 4-1 on February 6.
Markstrom stopped 32 pucks in front of the Flames, who have won two games in a row after losing three in a row.
Charlie Coyle scored both goals for the Bruins, who collected at least a point in an 11th consecutive road game (7-0-4). David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy saw their streak of five games with at least one point come to an end.
Former Montreal Canadiens Anthony Richard collected his second assist of the campaign. He scored one goal and three points in seven games with the Bruins this season.
Ullmark made 27 saves.
The Kraken adds to the Canucks’ slump
Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle had four and three points, respectively, in a 5-2 win for the Seattle Kraken over the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks, leaders in the West with 80 points in 59 games, have lost their last four meetings.
McCann had a goal and three assists while Eberle had two goals and an assist.
Justin Schultz added a goal and an assist, Vince Dunn also scored and Philipp Grubauer stopped 19 shots.
JT Miller scored his fifth goal in his last three games, his 29th of the season. Sam Lafferty was the other scorer for the Canucks.
The Kraken scored the final three goals of the game after the two teams exchanged two goals in the first half of the game. Schultz and Eberle dealt a big blow to the Canucks by scoring 1:11 apart to make it 4-2 Kraken in the second.
Rare setback for the Kings since the coaching change
Juuse Saros signed a second straight victory for the first time since mid-December, Colton Sissons got three points and the Nashville Predators took the measure of the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 4-1.
Saros stopped 27 shots. He had not managed to sign two victories in a row since his streak of six consecutive victories between December 3 and 16.
Yakov Trenin and Mark Jankowski scored to help the Predators take a 2-1 lead after two periods while Sissons and Jérémy Lauzon both scored into an empty net late in the game.
Sissons was also complicit in the goals of Trenin and Lauzon.
Kevin Fiala scored the only goal for the Kings, who saw their winning streak end at four. They suffered only their second loss in seven games since Jim Hiller took Todd McLellan’s place behind the bench.
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