In New York, the Rangers needed a complete game to get back to their winning ways on Friday night.
Chris Kreider h]it for a double for the Rangers in a 5-1 win over the visiting ANaheim Ducks.
Kreider moved into third on the all-time scoring list for the franchise, passing Adam Graves with his second goal of the game. He now has 281 career goals.
“I love Adam Graves, but it’s hard to talk about it right now postgame, especially with another game tomorrow,” Kreider said. “I’m happy with the result tonight and we’ll try to go get a win in Boston tomorrow.”
He has Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle ahead of him.
“It’s cool, especially with an organization like the Rangers,” the Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad said, “Original Six team, all the legends, the big names that have played here, and he’s getting up there with those records. That’s pretty cool. Just the fact that he’s been here his whole career and be able to do what he’s done is impressive. I’m super proud. Whenever he hangs them up he’s going to be able to do enjoy it. Right now he’s so professional so he’s just thinking about the next game.”
Jonathan Quick made 28 saves in the win.
Quick improved to a gaudy 9-0-1 on the campaign.
The Rangers moved to 20-7-1. They had lost three of their previous four matches.
“I think we’ve responded well after losses or after games we haven’t been happy with, and we do that tonight again,” Zibanejad said. “I think we’ve just got to make sure we’re not just satisfied with the response today. We want to keep this going.”
Anaheim took a 1-0 lead in the game on a marker from Brett Leason at 13:30.
“Frustration, trying not to let it get to that,” Anaheim’s Troy Terry said. “It feels like a similar story. We get into penalty trouble or whatever the case is, and when the game ends you feel like you generated a lot and played pretty even 5-on-5. It’s hard to continue doing it.”
The Ducks dropped to 10-19-0.
“I thought we played hard and then we get into penalty trouble again, and then it’s bingo ball, who’s going to get the next penalty,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “It’s unfortunate. It’s a 2-1 game and then we take some penalties and before you know it it’s 4-1.”
Kreider potted his first of the night at at 17:06 to tie the game, 1-1, headed to the middle frame.
In the middle frame, Jimmy Vesey, wearing a full face shield, scored at 11:45 fro the left side off an assist from Adam Fox for a 2-1 lead.
Kreider’s double came off the power play at 16:19 to give the Rangers a 3-1 advantage.He scored from his typical low right side slot on a tip in.
“It’s an impressive play,” Zibanejad said. “I would say the angle is the most difficult one to try to get it by. It’s not like he’s done it once or twice where it’s kind of just bouncing in or a lucky bounce. Like everything else that he does, he works on it every day. There’s no luck involved in his game.”
In the third, the Rangers added two more markers for some breathing space.
Zibanejad extended the lead to 4-1 with the Rangers second power play goal of the game, coming at 15:26 of the third.
Adam Edstrom then scored his first career NHL goal in his NHL debut, off a whipped shot from the mid slot for the 5-1 final count.
“Amazing,” Edstrom said. “I can’t really understand it at this point. I kind of blacked out when I scored. I think I went up to the boards. Special feeling.”
The goal came with three seconds left on the game clock.
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Lukas Dostal made 34 saves in the loss.
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