In Newark, Chris Kreider scored a natural hat trick, his trick in five games, and the Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils, 6-1, on Thursday night.
Chris Kreider had a natural hat trick for the New York Rangers in win over Devils.
“It takes a lot of hard work from the guys you’re playing with, a willingness to get pucks there [to the net front],” Kreider said. “Those guys are doing the work, doing an incredible job. I’ve just been trying to stick around the front of the net and obviously it’s working for us right now.”
Igor Shesterkin got the start for the Rangers and made 32 saves, he left the game in the 15th minutes of the third period after being injured on a shot.
New York improved to 9-9-3.
“When you’re scoring at the rate (Kreider) he is, it means an awful lot for a team that has struggled to score goals,” New York head coach David Quinn said. “He’s certainly always doing the right thing. He’s reiterating all the things we’re trying to get our team to do. The leadership opportunities this year are greater than they have been in the past, so he’s taking advantage of that.”
Alexandar Georgiev finished the game and made three saves.
Jack Hughes scored in the first period for a 1-0 lead to the Devils.
Then the house fell in.
Kreider’s three goals made the score 3-1 after he completed his trick early in the third period.
Pavel Buchnevich made it 4-1 on a wrist shot.
Brendan Smith made it 5-1. on a shot from the wing.
Alexis Lafreniere finished off the scoring with under two minutes left in the game, he snapped home a shot off a feed from Mika Zibanejad.
“There’s definitely more confidence with the puck, doing the things he’s capable of doing at this level,” Quinn said of the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. “I’m happy for him. He’s getting rewarded for the type of plays he’s capable [of] and has been making.”
New Jersey dropped to 7-10-2.
Mackenzie Blackwood was the Devils’ started and was given the hook midway through the third period out of mercy.
“I didn’t think [Blackwood] was seeing it … I thought he was fighting it, so I just thought I could maybe try to spark a little bit [of] momentum,” Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. “We’ve talked about we need to score. We got some tips, we had some net-front presence, we threw more pucks there. We had a lot of Grade A chances that if you don’t find the back of the net and you don’t get a team down, stuff like tonight can happen.”
He made 11 saves and yielded four goals.
The Devils were scoreless in four power play chances.
“We have no inside shot (on the power play); we’ve got the shot from the point but we’re not getting anything inside,” Ruff said. “I think when you start pressing, you’re starting to think shot from some terrible places, and some of our choices weren’t great.”
Aaron Dell surrendered two goals on just four shots in a mop role.
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