NEW YORK (AP) — Mika Zibanejad had a goal and two assists, Artemi Panarin met twice and Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves as the New York Rangers beat Pittsburgh 6-0 on Saturday night to earn their second win over the Penguins in three days.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Chris Kreider And Jacob Trouba also scored for the rising Rangers, who have won nine of their last 11 home games and been 12-4-0 in their last 16 at Madison Square Garden.
Shesterkin won his fifth straight win and scored his second shutout of the season. He refused Pittsburgh’s nimble forward Michael Granland with a sweeping save five minutes into the third period to save the shutout, the 10th of his career.
The Penguins lost their third straight game and sit third in the Metropolitan Division, 12 points adrift of Rangers.
Patrick Kane and defender K’Andre Miller also had two assists apiece as New York improved to 7-1-1 in their last nine home games against Pittsburgh. The Rangers are five points behind the second-placed New Jersey Devils, who lost in Florida on Saturday.
Shesterkin won his fifth straight win and scored his second shutout of the season. He nimbly denied Pittsburgh forward Mikael Granland with a sweeping save five minutes into the third period to save the shutout, the 10th of his career.
The Penguins lost their third straight game and sit third in the Metropolitan Division, 12 points adrift of Rangers.
Patrick Kane and defenseman K’Andre Miller also had two assists each as New York improved to 7-1-1 in their last nine home games against Pittsburgh. The Rangers are five points behind the second-placed New Jersey Devils, who lost in Florida on Saturday.
Rangers have been 29-9-5 since Dec. 5, when they turned their season around with a 6-4 comeback home win over St. Louis.
As on Thursday, when Rangers beat Penguins 4-2, Zibanejad opened the scoring. He scored his team-leading 36th goal at 5:10 of the first, beating the Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. Trouba and Miller assisted.
Panarin made it 2-0 on the power play at 7:49 p.m. by whipping the puck past Jarry after an Adam Fox pass from the left circle.
Tarasenko increased the lead to 3:54 of the second with his fifth goal since joining the Rangers on Feb. 9 in a trade with St. Louis. Tarasenko has points in 10 of his first 18 games with Rangers.
Kreider made it 4-0 at 6:43 with his 31st goal and third in two games against the Penguins. Kane and Vincent Trocheck assisted Kreider’s 260th career goal that put Rangers ahead within two minutes Vic Hadfield for fifth place on the franchise list.
New York won on Thursday when Kreider scored the go-ahead goal in the third and netted an empty net.
After Casey DeSmith After Kreider’s goal, Jarry replaced at the net, Trouba defeating the backup keeper with a sharp angle shot at 8:39 for his eighth to take the lead to 5-0. Trouba has points in six of his last eight games.
Panarin scored again at 4:38 p.m. for the second – his 22nd goal of the season – to make it 6-0, with assists for Kane and Filip Chytil.
Panarin has points in eight of his last 10 games and leads Rangers with 77 points overall, while Kane has seven points in his last six games.
Zibanejad assisted goals from Tarasenko and Trouba and has 25 points – including 14 goals – in his last 20 games.
REMARKS
The Penguins were missing defender Jeff Petry after being hit with an unpunished elbow by Rangers forward Tyler Motte on Thursday. … Pittsburgh also scratched defenseman Jan Rutta and forward Dalton Heinen and played defenseman Mark Friedman for the first time since Feb. 11. … Rangers had to go without injured defender Ryan Lindgren for their 10th straight game.
NEXT
Penguins: Hosts Ottawa Senators on Monday.
Rangers: host the Nashville Predators on Sunday night.
Source : sports.yahoo.com