In New York, Jaroslav Halak made 33 saves in his fifth straight win for the Rangers, a 4-1 decision over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights.
After a rough start to his season on Broadway, Halak is 5-0-0, with an impressive set of stats including a .938 save percentage, and 1.80 goals against average,
“Every time you join a new team, maybe you try too much and somehow you’re squeezing the stick a little more,” Halak said. “I guess when my record wasn’t the best, I told myself, ‘Don’t worry about those games, turn the page and keep moving forward.’ That’s what I wanted.”
In no small coincidence, the Rangers’ season turned around at nearly the same time Halak’s did.
Phil Kessel was the lone striker for the Knights, his second period goal cut the Rangers lead, at the time, to 2-1.
For Vegas, they are 1-5-1 in their last seven.
“It’s just like, you’ve got to be sick of losing at some point and it shows in your play, in your urgency,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’ve got to dig in that much harder to score to get a lead so we can feel better about our game.”
The Golden Knights dropped to 29-18-3.
“You’ve got to show that you’re involved physically, that you’re desperate to win the hockey game,” Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said, “and I think we don’t have that desperation right now.”
Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck scored in the opening frame for the 2-0 advantage they carried into the second period.
For Kreider, it was his 20th of the season, in his 700th career NHL game.
The Rangers are 16-4-3 since early December.
“We really turned it around and a big credit to everyone in here,” New York center Mika Zibanejad said. “We believed in this group. We believed in each other. We knew what we had to do. We weren’t happy the way we were playing the first 25 games or so, but everyone was just trying to get back to what we did well last year, trying to understand to do the simple things, the little details that really matter.
“We know that’s when we’re a good team, when we pay attention to those little details and work together. That’s what we’ve been seeing.”
Filip Chytil continued his hot hand with the Rangers when he skated down the left slot and collected his own rebound of a shot, to bank it into the net off Vegas defenseman, Shea Theodore.
Jimmy Vesey connected a long distance shot for an empty-net goal and the 4-1 final.
Adin Hill made 36 saves in the Vegas loss.
“I think everybody needs to look at themselves in the mirror, maybe look at their game,” Marchessault said. “I think we’ve got to play a little more inside. Sometimes goals aren’t always the prettiest, but they still count. I think we’ve got to get inside.
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“Everybody, it doesn’t matter who it is or who you’re playing with, if it’s your turn to get inside or drive the net or get in front of the net you’ve got to do it. We need more of a mentality of just a grind. Winning hurts sometimes and we’ve got to find a way.”
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