Artemi Panarin scored in the third period and added an assist, Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves and the New York Rangers clinched the Metropolitan Division title and Presidents’ Trophy with a 4-0 victory over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
The Rangers (55-23-4, 114 points) clinched their first division title since 2014-15 when they also last claimed the Presidents’ Trophy by attaining 113 points to lead the NHL. New York held at least a share of the division led every day since Oct. 24 and will host the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card team in the opening round of the playoffs.
Panarin ended his most productive regular season on a 13-game points streak and finished with 49 goals and 120 points. He finished three points shy of Jaromir Jagr’s 2005-06 team record and matched Mike Gartner (1990-91) for the fifth-most goals in team history.
Panarin finished off New York’s latest win after the Rangers held a 2-0 lead through the first 40 minutes on a goal by Jack Roslovic and a short-handed tally by Adam Fox.
Panarin scored his 49th goal of the season 4:34 into the third and 10 seconds after he was stopped by Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo. As the Rangers moved the puck around, Panarin was free in between the faceoff circles and tipped in a shot by defenseman Ryan Lindgren.
Panarin then got the secondary assist on New York’s fourth goal when Alexis Lafreniere buried a one-timer from close range with seven minutes left.
Shesterkin notched his fourth shutout of the season and 15th of his career to finish off a 36-win campaign.
Korpisalo allowed four goals on 34 shots as Ottawa (36-41-4, 76 points) was blanked for the fourth time this season.
The Rangers went ahead 5:55 into the contest thanks to Roslovic’s defensive play. He forced Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub into a neutral zone turnover and scored his sixth goal with the Rangers by getting to the right side of the crease and lifting the puck over Korpisalo’s glove to finish off a two-on-one with Chris Kreider.
Fox scored his third career short-handed goal after another defensive play.
Mika Zibanejad forced an Ottawa turnover in the right corner by New York’s net and moved the puck to Kreider. Kreider found Fox cutting through the slot and the defenseman converted the tip-in over Korpisalo’s glove with 11:02 remaining in the second.
–Field Level Media
