Rangers, Devils put on the foil
Everyone fights, then Blueshirts skate to victory
First came a full-scale brawl, then the Rangers continued their season-long dominance of the Devils Wednesday night at the Garden. Chris Kreider scored a power-play goal late in the third period and the Rangers rallied to beat the Devils, 4-3, in a game that started with a 10-player battle.
All skaters on the ice got into brawls right off the opening faceoff. Eight players were ejected after receiving game misconducts two seconds into the game, forcing both teams to play with four fewer skaters the rest of the way.
Coaches Peter Laviolette of the
Rangers and the Devils’ Travis Green were also yelling at each other from their respective benches before play resumed after the fighting. Only the goalies did not participate in the brawl.
When things settled down, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere each notched a goal and an assist, and Kaapo Kakko also scored for the NHL-leading Rangers. Igor Shesterkin finished with 17 saves as the Blueshirts won for the sixth time in seven games and 11th time in their last 14.
Nico Hishier, Ondrej Palat and Brendan Smith scored in the second period for the Devils, and Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 37 shots. The Devils have lost three straight and remain six points behind Washington for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Trailing, 3-2, after 40 minutes, the Rangers tied it on Kakko’s 13th goal of the season at 5:32 of the third period. Kreider then put the Rangers back ahead as he deflected Adam Fox’s shot from the point past Kahkonen with 4:57 remaining.
Panarin also assisted on Kreider’s goal, giving him a team-high 110 points.
The Rangers completed a fourgame season series sweep of the Devils less than a year after the Blueshirts lost the teams’ first-round playoff series in seven games.
Palat got the Devils on the scoreboard at 2:11 of the second with his 10th, and Smith got his fourth at 9:53 to tie it, 2-2. Hischier put the Devils ahead with his 25th with 8:36 remaining in the second period.
Panarin got his team-high 45th goal at 9:22 of the first to get the Rangers on the scoreboard first.
Lafreniere added his 26th with 1:57 left in the first.