In Vancouver, the Canucks stiffened their competitiveness on Wednesday night but still lost, 6-4, to the New York Rangers.
Artemi Panarin hit for a double in the first period to help the Rangers take a 3-2 lead in the opening period.
The Rangers moved to 32-14-8 on their sixth straight win, they are riding an eight-game point streak at 7-0-1.
The Rangers have averaged five goals per game in their six-game streak.
“We have the high-powered offense to do that,” Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey said. “[Panarin and Zibanejad] are world-class players and they can be game-breakers every night so if one’s not going, the other one might be going that night. But tonight, Mika had two and [Panarin] had two, so I think if that’s going to happen, we’re going to be tough to beat.”
Mika Zibanejad also hit for a double in the game.
“He says he’s a passer, but he can score too,” Zibanejad said of Panarin. .
Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves is the New York win.
The Canucks took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike by Curtis Lazar .
Zibanejad hit for his first of the game to tie it, 1-1.
“I got some pretty good speed coming down and tried to freeze him and see what he gives me,” Zibanejad said. “I don’t know if he bit on the pump fake, and I saw opening between his legs there and tried to put it five-hole and it went in.”
Vancouver dropped to 21-30-4, they have given up five or more goals in 26 games this season..
Panarin and J.T. Miller traded goals for a 2-2 tie before Panarin hit for his double and a 3-2 advantage coming out of the first period.
“He can be as deadly as anyone in the League,” Vesey said. “Right now he’s hot, and it’s a tough matchup for other teams.”
Chris Kreider scored 50 seconds into the middle frame for a 4-2 lead, the Rangers broke out of their zone on a 3-on-2Â rush.
The goal was Kreider’s 251st in his career, one than Mark Messier (250) for sixth place in Rangers history.
“Good for him,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “Mark Messier is a Hall of Famer and a great player, one of the great players of all time, so it’s good for [Kreider].”
Near the midway point of the second, Vancouver got back to within one, 4-3, on a marker from Conor Garland.
K’Andre Miller scored on a shot from the blue line to restore the two-goal lead, 5-3 headed to the third.
“They’ve got some good weapons, both on their [defensemen] and forwards,” Vancouver;s Elias Pettersson said. “But we know that. I think we’ve just got to just got to be better.”
Andrei Kuzmenko trimmed the lead back to one when he scored in the third period to make it 5-4.
Zibanejad scored into an empty net for the 6-4 final with less than two minutes left on the clock.
“We can always look at the defensive side and say we need to clean up this and that, but they can score as well,” Zibanejad said. “We keep talking about doing the right things and we know we can score and [we’ve] just got to make sure we make the right decisions, that we don’t try to sacrifice the defensive part.”
Arturs Silovs made 22 saves in the Canucks loss, it was his NHL debut.
“It’s different skills, different speed. It was fun to play and get that experience,” Silovs said. “It’s going to help me a lot long term, because at least I know what it is. I know what I can be better at so I can push myself even more.”
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