In New York, Jonathan Quick made 19 saves, and the Rangers handed the New Jersey Devils a 3-1 loss on Monday night.
It was another strong defensive effort from the Rangers who had a shutout on Saturday night.
The Rangers improved to 42-18-4.
“They bring a lot of speed and they hang onto pucks and they look to make plays,” Laviolette said. “They can put it behind them and go to work or they can attack off the rush, which they’ve done as well. They’re noticeable and I think they’ve had positive impacts on their lines.”
Following a scoreless first period, the Rangers posted two goals in the middle frame.
Mika Zibanejad scored at 12:25 of the middle frame for a 1-0 lead, the goal came after a New Jersey turnover in the corner.
“When we’re winning it takes off some of that pressure,” Zibanejad said, “but when the puck hasn’t gone in for a while it’s nice to see one go in.”
Erik Gustafsson padded the lead with 52 seconds left in the second with a shot through heavy traffic in the slot.
“There’s another big game coming up tomorrow against Carolina, a team that we’re battling for that spot,” Zibanejad said. “It’s going to be a tough game and a good challenge.”
New Jersey dropped to 31-30-4 off their fifth loss in six games.
“I thought we came up light a little bit in a couple areas, little loose puck battles,” Devils coach Travis Green said. “A lot of nights those little battles determine the game. Obviously, our power play needs to get us one and we didn’t convert on some really good chances where we had some good looks or even backdoor plays that didn’t connect that we’re capable of. It was a tough loss against a good team.”
In the third period, New Jersey got to within one goal on a marker from Simon Nemec at 17:26 to trim the deficit to 2-1.
“This late in the season it’s hard 5-on-5 to score goals and obviously you need your power play to step up in those times, especially late in the game,” the Devils’ Jesper Bratt said. “We just need our power play to honestly be better there. We could have made a difference for the team and we did not. Frustrating.”
The Rangers sealed the win with an empty-net strike by Vincent Trocheck at 18:47 for the 3-1 final count on the scoreboard.
“I like that we kept our shifts really short and that way when it did come time with areas we could pressure we had the gas in the tank to do it,” Laviolette said. “We just kept moving things quick and because of that it was just a lot of pressure, and they weren’t able to set up and generate much.”
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Kaapo Kahkonen made 23 saves in the loss.
“Good to get the first one out of the way, obviously, but tough to not come up with the two points,” Kahkonen said.
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