In Chicago, the New York Rangers used a four-goal third period, to separate themselves form the Blackhawks on Tuesday night for a 6-2 win.
The victory was the seventh straight for New York.
Artemi Panarin hit for a pair of goals and four points in the win; he now 500 care3er NHL points.
“He was unbelievable today,” the Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad said. “Big game from him.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 24 saves in the Rangers win.
“I think, especially, when we’re playing the way we want to, we’ve seen the result of that and at least we give ourselves a chance to win every night,” Zibanejad said. “We’re playing well right now and we just have to keep that going. That’s obviously the confidence in the group that we see that we can win in different ways.”
New York improved to 17-4-3.
Erik Gustafsson and Kirby Dach responded to the Rangers’ opening goal with 61 seconds gone in the game.
Jacob Trouba snapped home a goal for 1-0 lead before the Blackhawks replied for a 2-1 lead.
Trouba was involved in a hit on Chicago’s Jujhar Khaira in the Chicago defensive zone.
The hit resulted in Khaira hitting the ice, with his head hitting the ice hard. He was motionless for some time on the ice and carried off on stretcher.
“We won’t know the extent of the injury until after these tests,” Chicago head coach Derek King said. “But he’s talking, he’s coherent, I guess. It’s a scary situation to see.”
The Rangers were 2-for2 on the power play in the game and killed off four penalties on the night.
“We’re not going to score [on the power play] every game, but at least give our team the momentum, and when we score it’s huge for us,” Zibanejad said. “All five guys out there, even the second unit, can make plays. We have to take advantage of the ice that’s available and the plays that are there. I think we’re doing a good job of that now.”
Chris Kreider had one of the power play goals for a 3-2 lead for New York in the third.
“The first (period) was real tough to watch,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “We didn’t win many battles in that, but we hung around in the game like we’ve done a few times this year and then found a way to play real good in the third.”
Kevin Rooney added to scoresheet for a 4-2.
Barclay Goodrow added salt to the wound with a late strike after Panarin hit for an empty net goal, for the 6-2 final.
“The way we were going, we just didn’t have that extra jam to have a pushback,” King said. “An empty-netter and they score another one, that’s how it happens. But we’ll just regroup, recharge the batteries and we’ll take our show on the road now.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves in the Chicago loss.
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