Ryan McDonagh, Chris Kreider and Martin St Louis had a goal and an assist each as the New York Rangers got back to winning ways with a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Wednesday.
Derick Brassard and Dominic Moore also scored for New York, while Derek Stepan had two assists. Henrik Lundqvist made 19 saves to earn the win.
The Rangers won their first game after having an eight-game winning streak snapped at Dallas on Monday. It was the longest run in 40 years for New York (20-11-4), who went 9-3 last month.
Photo: USA Today
Tomas Fleischmann and Jimmy Hayes scored for Florida.
New York dominated play from the outset against Florida, who played for the second straight night. The Panthers were outshot 24-12 through the first two periods and 34-21 overall.
The Rangers are 16-0-1 when they allow two goals or fewer.
Florida (16-10-9) tied their franchise record with 17 points last month. The Panthers, who lost to Montreal 2-1 in a shootout on Tuesday, went 2-1-1 in their traditional holiday homestand.
Al Montoya made big stops in the first period on Kreider on a breakaway, J. T. Miller on a rebound and Mats Zuccarello on a slap-shot, before Kreider scored his sixth goal at 16 minutes, 42 seconds.
The Rangers struck quickly in the second when Brassard put in a rebound off a shot by McDonagh from the left circle at 1:29. It was Brassard’s ninth goal and first since he netted a pair against Philadelphia on Nov. 29.
McDonagh made it 3-0 by keeping in a clearing attempt with his foot. He then zipped a slap-shot past Montoya at 14:48 for a power-play tally — his third goal this season.
Fleischmann took a long stretch pass from Jonathan Huberdeau and beat Lundqvist on the stick side with 3:22 left in the second for his fourth goal to make it 3-1.
Hayes brought the Panthers within a goal at 7:39.
St Louis’ 12th goal came at 9:51 and increased New York’s lead to 4-2.
Moore scored after St Louis was stopped by Montoya on a breakaway. Moore put back the shot at 15:35 for his second goal.
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