Rangers get off to a strong start, hold on vs. Canucks
Chris Kreider and Filip Chytil got New York off to a strong start in the first period and the Rangers held on to beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Wednesday night for their third straight win.
Alexis Lafreniere and Mika Zibanejad also scored for the Rangers, who have won four straight and 11 of the last 14 at home. K'Andre Miller had three assists and Jacob Trouba added two.
“We're at our best when we keep things simple,” said Miller, who recorded the first three-point game of his career. “The puck found me tonight and the guys made some great plays.”
Conor Garland, Vasily Podkolzin and Elias Pettersson had goals for the Canucks. Quinn Hughes had two assists and Spencer Martin finished with 17 saves.
Zibanejad gave the Rangers a two-goal cushion with 3:55 left in the third with his team-leading 25th goal but Pettersson made it 4-3 just 11 seconds later with his 22nd. Hughes got his team-high 42nd assist on the last score.
New York is 18-4-3 since Dec. 5 .
“We're finding ways to win,'' Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. ”Tonight was a see-saw battle. There was nothing easy tonight.”
Vancouver is 4-12-1 since Dec. 27 and is 2-2-1 under Rick Tocchet, who replaced Bruce Boudreau as the team's coach on Jan. 22.
“Some guys just weren't ready to play tonight,'' Tocchet said. “We had a chance at the end to get in there. Tonight it showed that if we don't value certain plays we're not going to win.” STARS 4, WILD 1 » Jamie Benn broke a scoreless tie 23 seconds into the second period of his 1,001st career game, and Dallas beat Minnesota.
Benn's 20th goal on a perfect feed from rookie Wyatt Johnston started a three-goal second for the Western Conference-leading Stars.
Roope Hintz had a goal and an assist, and Radek Faksa and Jani Hakanpaa also scored Dallas, and Jake Oettinger stopped 38 shots.
Joel Eriksson Ek scored on a power play for the Wild.