Even when the New York Rangers were not at their best, the points kept accumulating in their journey through Western Canada.
Coming off a successful four-game road trip, the Rangers attempt to run their point streak to 11 games Monday night when they host the Winnipeg Jets.
New York is 8-0-2 since Jan. 19 when it took a 3-1 home loss to the Boston Bruins for its most recent regulation loss. It is the NHL’s longest active point streak and the Rangers are seeking their first such streak longer than 10 games since going 11-0-2 from Oct. 18-Nov. 15, 2015.
The Rangers opened their trip with a dominant third period over the Carolina Hurricanes and then earned five out of six points (2-0-1) against the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. After earning a 6-4 win on Wednesday in Vancouver, the Rangers erased a pair of three-goal deficits in their 5-4 victory on Friday at Edmonton that was decided when Alexis Lafreniere scored the game-winner in a shootout.
“Overall, it was an excellent trip for us,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “It would have been nice to finish it up, but we’ll take the one point.”
On Saturday, the Rangers allowed two goals in the opening 46 seconds, but Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the second period and Lafreniere netted the tying power-play goal before New York took a 3-2 overtime loss in Calgary.
“You want the two points and every point matters, especially in our division and our conference,” New York center Vincent Trocheck said. “The East is tough right now. It’s going to come down to the wire, so every point matters. But at the same time, going down early like we did and getting a point out of it is respectable.”
Besides the point streak, New York also is 22-4-4 in its past 30 games, including a five-game home winning streak and a 12-3-0 showing in its past 15 home games.
New York is also returning home with its stars rolling of late.
Artemi Panarin has 15 points in a seven-game point streak. Mika Zibanejad scored the tying goal Friday and has eight goals in his past seven games.
The Rangers will also unveil their second new addition to their lineup this month. After acquiring Tarasenko from St. Louis Feb. 9, New York obtained Tyler Motte from Ottawa on Sunday. Motte had nine points (three goals, six assists) in 38 games for the Senators this season.
While the Rangers have scored at least four goals in eight of their past 10 games, the Jets have been held to two goals or fewer in six of their past eight contests. Since scoring five goals in consecutive wins at Ottawa and Philadelphia Jan. 21-22, the Jets are 3-5-0 in their past eight contests.
On Sunday, Winnipeg allowed three goals in the third period and took a 4-2 loss to the host New Jersey Devils.
Cole Perfetti and Neal Pionk scored late in the opening period, but the Jets mustered 25 shots after getting 38 in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Winnipeg also had 18 shots blocked and allowed 13 takeaways, including two leading to New Jersey’s tying and tiebreaking tallies.
“You can’t turn pucks over. We gave them those two goals,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “You have to play a full 60 minutes. Our puck management has to be better.”
–Field Level Media
