So, when your first liners are mired in scoring droughts you turn to Matt Puempel?
Yes you do. Puempel scored a hat trick with all three goals coming on the power play in a New York Rangers 6-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale Thursday.
“I didn’t have one in the American League, so it might have been in the [Ontario 
Hockey League], so it was nice to see some hats going on the ice,” Puempel said.
The hats were coming from the box occupied by the Rangers’ siblings at the arena.
Nick Holden, Chris Kreider and J.T. Miller added goals to the sheet for the Rangers who improved to 25-12-1.
“We kind of took what was given. We didn’t force anything,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said. “We won a lot of draws, had good puck movement and put a lot of pucks down to the net.”
Antti Raanta made 19 saves to get the win.
The Coyotes lost all five games on their homestand and all were lost in regulation.
Christian Dvorak, Anthony Duclair and Tobias Rieder scored for Arizona.
“Having a five-game homestand and not even getting a point, it’s just embarrassing. We need to put an end to it,” Duclair said.
The Rangers cored four goals off the power play and Arizona head coach Dave Tippett was not happy.
“We started the game taking penalties and we finished it taking penalties,” Tippett said. . “The Hanzal penalty, once we battle back to make it 3-3 is just a poor, poor penalty. Poor judgment.”
Tippett held a closed door meeting after the game and the players held their own meeting after that.
“It should be somber … it should be sour, not somber,” Tippett said of the mood in the locker room.
WATCH: All Rangers vs. Coyotes highlights
The Coyotes responded after the Rangers took a 3-1 lead by lying it up but had nothing left after Puempel put New York up in the third.
“We talked before the game about how we can’t put them on the power play, and we did just that,” Duclair said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.