Chris Kreider scored his 250th career goal, Filip Chytil tied a career high by scoring in his fifth straight game and the host New York Rangers held on for a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.
New York improved to 4-0-1 in its past five games and 18-4-3 since its 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 3.
Kreider and Chytil scored in a span of 1:38 during the first period while Alexis Lafreniere tallied in the second and Mika Zibanejad scored his 25th goal late in the third.
Kreider became the seventh player in team history to reach 250 goals. Chytil matched his longest goal-scoring streak set Nov. 12-21, 2018, and scored his 11th goal in his past 13 contests.
New York’s Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves in his first start in two weeks.
Conor Garland, Vasily Podkolzin and Elias Pettersson scored as Vancouver dropped to 2-2-1 under new coach Rick Tocchet and dropped to 4-12-1 in its past 17.
Vancouver’s Spencer Martin stopped 17 shots and lost for the ninth straight time.
Kreider opened the scoring with 13:07 remaining when he finished off a 2-on-1 with Vincent Trocheck by converting an easy tap-in at the left side of the net.
The Rangers doubled the lead with 11:29 remaining when Chytil flipped a backhander over Martin’s left shoulder from in front of the net moments after Vancouver defenseman Riley Stillman committed a giveaway behind the net.
The Canucks made it a one-goal game with 2:24 remaining in the first when Garland’s off-balance shot from the left circle sailed over Shesterkin’s right shoulder.
New York took a 3-1 lead with 13:37 left in the second when Lafreniere reached his stick out for the deflection of Jacob Trouba’s shot from the left point into the vacated right side of the net.
Vancouver got within one goal again with 3:54 remaining when Podkolzin came off the bench and stepped into a wrister from the left circle that caromed off the stick of the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin’s and past Shesterkin’s right shoulder.
After Zibanejad deflected a Trouba shot with 3:55 remaining, Pettersson pushed a loose puck into the net 11 seconds later when icing went uncalled.
–Field Level Media
