IN New York, Chris Kreider scored the final two goals of the game on Thursday night to give the Rangers a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
His first goal gave New York a 3-2 lead at 11:45 of the third. The goal came off a rebound of a shot from the point, Kreider scored as he was going to the ice on the play but recovered enough to slide it home.
His second was off a rebound of a Vincent Trocheck shot on an empty net with 50 seconds left for the 4-2 final.
“The division is tight, the playoff race is tight, so it’s a big win, a big divisional win,” Kreider said. “These are four-point games.”
Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves in the New York win.
The Rangers improved to 39-19-10 off an active five-game point streak.
Mika Zibanejad gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead in the first period after taking a pass off the left boards on a pass from Artemi Panarin.
“We’re finding it a little bit more and more,” Zibanejad said. “Overall, pretty good. Obviously, we want to have things to work on. We want to get better and create a lot of scoring chances. We’ve just got to keep going and see what we can do.”
The Pens replied in the second period on a goal from Rickard Rakell at 14:40 of the middle frame.
Tyler Motte scored an unassisted goal for the Rangers at 16:53 after he stole the puck form the Penguins’ defense and scored for a 2-1 lead headed to the third.
“Three in [seven] days and two in a row, it’s good,” Motte said. “It’s good for us to try to get up to playoff style and playoff speed so when we do get there — we’re not looking forward by any means — but when we do get there, hopefully we’re in the right mindset.”
Pittsburgh dropped to 34-24-10, and remain tied with the New York Islanders for the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They trail the Rangers by 10 points for third in the Metropolitan Division.
“We know where we’re at,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “These games are important and we’re fighting for a playoff spot. We’re trying to maximize the opportunity we have in front of us. Tonight it was against the Rangers. It was a missed opportunity for us. We’ve got to learn from it, look by it and get ready for the next one.”
Jake Guentzel scored at 3:03 of the third third to knot the game, 2-2.
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Tristan Jarry made 31 saves in the Penguins loss.
“I thought Tristan played well, he took a big step,” Sullivan said. “As a team we had our moments. I didn’t think we brought a level of urgency that we needed to early in the game. I thought we gave up a few too many odd-man rushes, and that just boils down to details. I just think we need to bring more urgency and when we do that’s when we have an opportunity to be at our best. We didn’t have enough guys bringing it tonight.”
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