VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Rangers are hitting their stride at the right time.
They picked up their sixth win in a row Wednesday night with a 6-4 win over the Canucks at Rogers Arena, continuing their run as an offensive juggernaut. The Rangers have an eye-popping 18 goals in their last three games and 31 goals during their win streak.
The outpouring of goals is an encouraging sign and has allowed them to keep pace behind the Hurricanes and Devils in the Metropolitan Division. That scoring has been necessary, considering the fact they also have allowed 17 goals over the past six games.
The Rangers were expected to have an easy time putting the puck away since they were facing Vancouver’s rookie goalie, Arturs Silovs, who was making his NHL debut. And they did. The Rangers scored six goals or more for the third game in a row and the 11th time this season.
They let the Canucks hang around, however, due to some questionable defense at times and an off-night from goalie Igor Shesterkin. It was a similar story to the last time the Rangers faced the Canucks, when they beat them 4-3 last week at the Garden. Shesterkin stopped 25 of the 29 shots he faced Wednesday night, but the Rangers gave the Canucks too much to work with.
Still, the Rangers have been able to make up for their defensive shortcomings by acting as a force with the puck.
Artemi Panarin said he felt at a different level in the aftermath of his four-goal game Saturday at Carolina, as well as the Rangers’ recent acquisition of his pal and compatriot, Vladimir Tarasenko — and Panarin showed it Wednesday night. With two goals in the first period, Panarin collected his fifth and sixth goals in the past two games. He’s now riding a five-game point streak, over which he has collected 11 points.
The new-look top line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Tarasenko were threatening all night long, flying up and down the ice and totaling three goals. Zibanejad notched a first-period tally before threading a tape-to-tape pass to Kreider, who buried his 251st goal as a Ranger to surpass Mark Messier for seventh-most goals in franchise history, 50 seconds into the second period for a 4-2 lead.
After defenseman K’Andre Miller scored with less than seven minutes to go in the second period to give the Rangers a two-goal cushion to start the third, Vancouver’s Andrei Kuzmenko scored with just over 11 minutes left in regulation to keep the Canucks breathing down the visitors’ necks. His shot from between the top of the circles whizzed right past Shesterkin’s glove, the type of shot the Russian netminder usually stops.
But Zibanejad scored an empty-netter with 1:34 left to let the Rangers breathe.
Despite a sloppy opening period from the Rangers, presumably due to the three days between games in comparison to the Canucks’ one, they still hung three on Silovs.
The Canucks kept pace with the Rangers and capitalized on their opportunities. Curtis Lazar struck first by burying a loose rebound that Shesterkin couldn’t get a hold of less than five minutes into the game. Zibanejad answered for the Rangers 59 seconds later on the rush, however, before Panarin blasted a one-timer off a feed from Jimmy Vesey.
With Alexis Lafreniere in the box for hooking later in the first period, J.T. Miller’s one-timer from the right face-off circle knotted the score at two-all. Panarin then tipped in a Niko Mikkola shot from the point to regain the lead for the Rangers at 15:36 of the first.
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