Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first goal for his new team 2:49 into the first period as the host New York Rangers recorded a 6-3 victory over the slumping Seattle Kraken Friday night.
Tarasenko was placed on the top line with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad after being obtained from the St. Louis Blues Thursday afternoon. He meshed seamlessly with New York’s stars and scored on his second shift.
Kaapo Kakko and Vincent Trocheck also scored in the three-goal opening period as the Rangers improved to 5-0-1 since revamping their lines in the wake of a 3-1 home loss to the league-best Boston Bruins on Jan. 19. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren added a short-handed empty-net goal.
Defenseman Jacob Trouba and Zibanejad added power-play goals as the Rangers also improved to 19-4-3 in their past 26 games.
New York’s Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves and stopped Brandon Tanev on a short-handed breakaway late in the third.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored in the second period while Jared McCann and Tanev tallied 22 seconds apart in the third as the Kraken dropped to 3-6-1 since winning eight straight Jan. 1-14.
Seattle goalie Martin Jones allowed five goals on 27 shots.
After a giveaway by Seattle’s Ryan Donato in the neutral zone, Panarin gained possession and sped down the right side. Tarasenko skated through the slot and easily turned Panarin’s centering feed into a 1-0 lead.
About 2 1/2 minutes later, Kakko crashed the net and made it 2-0 by tipping in a shot by Filip Chytil past Jones.
New York got to the front of the net for its third goal with 5:31 remaining. Jones initially made a left pad stop on Trocheck but could not cover up, the puck trickled to the goal line and Trocheck easily tapped it in for his 15th goal.
Trouba made it 4-0 by sweeping a backhander from the red line that caromed off Seattle defenseman Will Borgen’s skate into the vacated right side of the net 63 seconds in.
Bjorkstrand got Seattle on the board by finishing off a breakaway when the Rangers were slow to complete a line change a little over a minute after Trouba scored.
After Zibanejad buried a one-timer from the left side early in the third period, McCann blasted a wrister over Shesterkin and Tanev scored on a breakaway with 13:39 remaining.
–Field Level Media
