Artemi Panarin scored three goals, Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves on his 28th birthday and the NHL-leading New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Saturday night.
Vincent Trocheck had a goal and three assists, and Chris Kreider also scored for New York. Alexis Lafreniere had two assists, and Mika Zibanejad had an assist for a career-high 10-game point streak.
The Rangers are the first team to reach 50 points for the first time since winning their last Stanley Cup in 1993-1994. New York, who lost 4-3 at Florida on Friday night, are 6-0 in the second of back-to-back games this season.
Photo: AP
“Overall, pretty gutsy effort out of us in a pretty tough back-to-back,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 16 shots and NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov scored his 25th goal.
The Lightning’s 39 points through 37 games is one behind their total after the same number of games in 2016-2017, which was the last time they missed the playoffs. Tampa Bay have 80 shot attempts, while the Rangers have 37.
“The pucks we threw at the net, the chances we had, for us to only get one, that’s tough,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Those are the things we’ve just got to keep doing.”
Panarin had two third-period goals, including one on a power play to complete his sixth hat-trick and give him 23 this season.
“It seems like he somehow continues to get better ... which is kind of crazy to think,” Trocheck said. “He’s obviously an outstanding hockey player, one of the best in the league.”
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