In New York, the Rangers regained their taste for winning on Sunday in a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals.
That taste reaffirmed itself on Tuesday night in a 5-2 win over the Seattle Kraken.
Kaapo Kakko iced his second game since his return from a lower body injury on Sunday.
“I kind of take it like it’s never good to be out of the games, getting hurt,” Kakko said, “but I think I didn’t play good, so if that should happen it’s kind of a good time for that. I got some time off, work out, think about my game, and I’m back right now and hopefully better than before.”
Tuesday night Kakko connected off a feed from Mika Zibanejad who was on the left boards, Kakko knelt on one knee and slapped home the puck for a 4-1 lead to New York at the end of the middle frame.
“That was a really nice play by Mika off the rush,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “He attacked it, pushed people back and as he pushed back I thought ‘Kaap’ did a good job of finding some space in the center of the ice and got the shot off quick. It’s nice to get him on the board and feeling that as well. It’s good to have him back.”
Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves in the win.
“I finally started seeing the puck,” Shesterkin said.
The Rangers improved to 28-13-2 off their second straight win following a four-game slide.
“Especially right now,” he said. “I got some chances last game and today even before the goal. Those are good things, but at some point you need the goal also. It felt really good and [gave me] more confidence.”
The Rangers took the lead at 8:22 of the opening stanza when Artemi Panarin sent a no-look pass to Vincent Trocheck on the low right side for a tap in and the 1-0 advantage; the goal came off the power play.
Seattle’s Jordan Eberle collected the puck after Trocheck turned it over in the neutral zone, he scored midway through the first to tie it, 1-1.
“This ground that we’ve made up the last month, it slips away pretty quickly if you start losing games,” Eberle said. “The next game obviously is a must win for us. We have to find a way to get healthy first of all, but find some jump, some energy and take it into Edmonton.”
The Rangers went back to their play from earlier in the season and responded 26 seconds after the Eberle goal on a strike by Erik Gustafsson from the mid slot off a writer to give the Rangers a 2-1 lad headed to the middle frame.
Seattle dropped to 19-16-9 off their second straight loss.
“[The] difference really was the second period, we had great opportunities,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We didn’t execute on the 2-on-1, Shesterkin made the save on [Kailer Yamamoto], and the 3-on-1 we just didn’t execute. So, really, that’s the difference in the hockey game. We weren’t able to capitalize on our opportunities.”
In the middle frame, Blake Wheeler scored the first of his double on the night at 12:32 to push the Rangers’ advantage to 3-1.
“The response right after their first goal, to go out there and score another goal is huge,” Wheeler said. “It stymies their momentum, gets our crowd back into it.”
Kakko collected his goal at 17:01.
Jared McCann got Seattle back on the board at 14:24Â with a power play goal to trim the deficit to 4-2.
Wheeler connected for his double off an empty-net strike at 17:22 of the third for the 5-2 final count on the scoreboard.
Use CodePHN15 Kaapo Kakko earns the PHN Chair of the Night for his first goal since returning to the lineup.
Chris Driedger made 18 saves in the Seattle loss.
“We’ve still got a lot of guys that are fighting through things and that doesn’t just clear up in a day, unfortunately,” Hakstol said. “Some of the effects on the guys who had to play big minutes [Monday], that wears on you a little bit tonight. But we had jump.”
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