In New York, it was an ugly 25 minutes to start their match with the Arizona Coyotes, as the Rangers trailed by two (1-3) early in the middle frame.
Clayton Keller scored in the second period to give the Coyotes the 3-1 lead. From there there it seemed the Rangers were about to sleepwalk through yet another match.
Chris Kreider scored a shorthanded goal in the second to get the Ranges within one, that goal seemed to ignite the stagnant New York squad and they scored five more goals in a 7-3 win over Arizona.
Kreider hit for a hat trick in the game, once off even strength and once off the power play, for his 29th goal of the season.
“He’s just playing with a lot of confidence,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “Him and his linemates are playing real well together and the power play has been really good this year, clicking. He knows where to score goals. He’s around that net. He shoots the puck real well and skates well. He just keeps his game simple.”
The Rangers were coming off a miserable display of over confidence in Raleigh where they lost, 6-3, to Carolina.
New York was outshot, 16-4 in the first period.
To be fair, their flight from Raleigh did not land in the metro area until 4 a.m.
Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves in the Blueshirts win.
Jacob Trouba struck for a pair of goals for New York.
“Wild 48 hours for us,” Trouba said. “It took a little bit to get our legs and our momentum going, but we had good composure in between periods. We didn’t like our game. We stuck with it. We know we have a team that is capable of turning it on. You don’t want to rely on turning it on and off, but a unique 48 hours for us and it’s good to be able to do that.”
The Rangers improved to 27-11-4.
“We know we’re not out of it,” Kreider said. “At the same time, we know we need to play the right way to generate those chances. The challenge for us is just doing that from the drop of the puck, not digging ourselves a hole regardless of whether we have legs early on.”
Andrew Ladd and Liam O’Brien scored in the first period for the Coyotes as they danced around the Rangers like road pylons.
“There’s two parts, the first part really good and the second part not at all,” Arizona head coach Andre Tourigny said. “It’s not like as a team we’re used to that. We fought in every game since the beginning of the season. … We’re happy about the consistency of our effort since the beginning of the season. We’re not tonight. We’ll address it on Monday.”
Julien Gauthier and Artemi Panarin added single markers for the Rangers.
“We started the second period well, we had our chances, we give that goal on the PK and then the game turned around,” Tourigny said. “From there I did not like the way we fought. The grit we had was not there. That’s the part we’re sour about.”
Karel Vejmelka got the start for Arizona and surrendered six goals, making 14 saves. he got the hook early in the third period.
Scott Wedgewood made six saves in a mop up role.
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