Lafreniere scores twice as Rangers knock off Devils
NEWARK, N.J. » Alexis Lafreniere scored twice, Artemi Panarin had three assists and the New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils 5-1 Thursday night for their ninth straight win to tie their longest streak in eight seasons.
Igor Shesterkin made 39 saves and picked up his first assist of the season as the Rangers moved within a win of tying their longest winning streak in franchise history. They had 10-game runs in 197273 and 1939-40.
Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal, linemate Chris Kreider got his 29th of the season and Vincent Trocheck talled late for New York, which has not lost since Jan. 26 against the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights. The Metropolitan Division leader killed all five New Jersey power plays, including an early five-minute major to rookie Matt Rempe and a fourminute high sticking call against Kaapo Kakko.
Jack Hughes broke up Shesterkin’s bid for a second shutout this season with 2:07 to play. Nico Daws made 13 saves for New Jersey, which lost its second straight and for the third time in four games.
Patrick Kane scored at 3:42 of overtime to give Detroit a win over Colorado.
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin dropped a pass to Kane, who whipped a quick shot from the top of the hash marks past Avalanche goalie Justus Annunen for his 10th goal of the season.
HURRICANES 1, PANTHERS 0 » Sebastian Aho scored with 18.9 seconds left, helping Pyotr Kochetkov and Carolina beat Florida.
Kochetkov stopped 44 shots in his third shutout of the season. Carolina has won four straight and six of its past seven games.
PENGUINS 4, CANADIENS 1 » Bryan Rust and Drew O’Conner scored 21 seconds apart in the second period to break open a close game and Pittsburgh gave its flagging postseason hopes a boost with a win over reeling Montreal.
Pittsburgh, which began the day eight points out of a wild-card spot in the jumbled Eastern Conference with less than two months to go in the regular season, won for just the second time in its last seven games behind 31 saves from Tristan Jarry.