On The Strip, the New York Rangers and Golden Knights were tied, 1-1, entering the third period on Thursday night. 
The Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad hit for the first of his two power play goals in the frame to give New York a 2-1 lead.
His second strike the final of four goals in the period and made the final, 5-1.
“We come to a building that’s loud, to a team that’s really good, and we’ve got 1-1 going into the third on the road,” Zibanejad said. “So, we just regroup and see this as a good opportunity to get two points, and that’s what we did.”
Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves in the win.
“It was a real good game. I mean, I thought we played great hockey until we put those two penalties and gave them some momentum there.” New York coach Gerrard Gallant said. “But I thought we played as solid a game as we played all year. … It was a team win tonight. Everybody came ready to play, from the fourth line right to our last defenseman. So, it was a good team game.”
New York improved to 13-10-5.
Jonathan Marchessault scored the lone goal for the Golden Knights.His strike came off the power play and tied the game, 1-1, in the second period.
“It’s not the end of the world, we got a lot of hockey left,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We put ourselves in a good position after the second period to get back into the game, then we mismanaged the puck, then it snowballs. It was an issue all game. We got away with it in the first period, get better in the second. We weren’t very good at managing the puck in the third..”
Kaapo Kakko put the Rangers offense in gear in the first period with a tip-in goal from above the crease fora 1-0 lead. The original shot came from K’Andre Miller at the blueline.
Vegas dropped to 19-8-1.
After Zibanejad scored for the 2-1 lead, Filip Chytil scored 24 seconds later on a nifty pass from Barclay Goodrow. The pass came from the right wing and floated over two defenders’ sticks to Chytil’s blade.
Alexis Lafreniere then hit for a goal to make it 4-1 to the Rangers.
Zibanejad completed the outburst with his second power play goal and the 5-1 final.
“Our power play got us going in the third and like I said, I just think it was a good solid game right through,” Gallant said. “But you know those games when you play well, sometimes you lose them and that’s always in the back of your mind too.”
Logan Thompson made 32 saves in the Knights loss, and lost one stick to the left post.
“We found our legs and some spirit in the second period,” Cassidy said. “Some emotion. We got into the game with a little bit of passion.”


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