In New York on Thursday, the Rangers were coming off a sloppy loss to the Carolina Hurricanes earlier in the week. They hosted the Chicago Blackhawks and atoned for their efforts with a 4-1 win.
Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves, making for a better effort than the six goals in the loss to the Canes.
The Rangers moved to 26-10-1.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead with seven minutes left in the opening stanza when Artemi Panarin converted a nifty pass cross ice from Alexis Lafreniere skating down the right side.
Vincent Trocheck started the rush up ice for the Rangers after pushing Connor Bedard to the ice at the Rangers’ blue line, and stealing the puck.
“He was their third guy high and that’s my responsibility,” Trocheck said. “I was going at him on the point. I was a little nervous. He’s got some moves for sure. I didn’t want him to shimmy-shake me. Luckily I was able to keep him in front of me. Then [on the] 3-on-2 rush, great pass by ‘Laf’ and great finish by ‘Bread.'”
Chris Kreider scored off the power play at 7:25 of the middle frame for a 2-0 lead to New York.
The goal was reviewed after the puck went in off Kreider’s back skate. The review showed no kicking motion.
The Blackhawks are without Tyler Johnson (right foot), Andreas Athanasiou (groin), Anthony Beauvillier (left wrist) and Taylor Raddysh (groin), and defenseman Seth Jones (shoulder). Forward Taylor Hall is out for the season with a knee injury.
“I don’t know how many teams can absorb this many injuries,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “We’re trying to get some people to play with some continuity with some new lines and a new lineup, but it’s what we’re dealt right now. We have to deal with it. I think at times we’ve played really well over the last two games, but playing really well, it’s not enough.”
The Blackhawks dropped to 11-25-2 off their fourth straight loss.
Colin Blackwell was the lone striker for Chicago, his second period goal, at 17:03, trimmed the Rangers lead to 2-1, headed to the third period.
“I saw our [defenseman] fire it up to the far blue line and [Katchouk] made a great play,” Blackwell said. “He waited a little bit until the stick got out of the way and slid it over to me. I was lucky to find the back of the net for the first time in a long time.”
In the third, Jacob Trouba scored 91 seconds into the frame for a 3-1 lead when he took a shot from the right boards and that glanced up and into then top shelf.
Just 70 seconds later, Jimmy Vesey gave the Rangers a little more breathing room, at 4-1, when he slapped home a marker off a backhand feed from Will Cuylle on the right side to Vesey low on the left.
“It was good, right out of the gate,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of the third period. “We talked about that because of the goal at the end of the second. I didn’t like the line change. Now it’s a 2-1 game, but I liked the fact that we came out with the right intent right away. We started playing fast, playing in their end, putting pucks at the net. Trouba’s goal was a big goal, followed it up right away and kept it going.”
Trocheck collected three assists in the win.
“There’s obviously a little bit of extra emphasis on that second game after a loss,” Trocheck said. “There’s all those cliches, great teams don’t lose two in a row, and we take pride in that. Obviously, we focus on some things after losses. Like the other night we go to the drawing board, we watch the tape and we made some adjustments to whatever we thought we were doing wrong.”
Petr Mrazek made 28 saves in the loss.
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