With Artemi Panarin off the left wing for NHL COVID19 protocol, the New York Rangers slipped Mika Zibanejad into his position.
That small change was enough to ignite Zibanejad who picked up a hat trick i a 4-0 win on Sunday afternoon over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“When he’s been out a couple games here and there … you’ve got to step up,” Zibanejad said. “He scores goals and makes a lot of things in the offensive zone happen. When a guy like that is out, you just want everyone to chip in a little bit more.”
With the win, the Rangers swept the homa-and-home set from the Lightning, after winning 4-3, on Friday in Tampa.
“I’m happy to help and as long as we win, it doesn’t matter,” Zibanejad said. “At the end of the day, I feel like I have that role to produce offense and to produce goals or assists to goals. It’s always nice when it goes in and we can help, and it helps the team to win.”
Igor Shesterkin made 38 saves for the shutout victory.
Zibanejad scored twice off the power play in the opening frame for a 2-0 lead.
“All of our players stepped up,” New York head coach Gerard Gallant said. “The best player was really good today, obviously, but all of our players stepped up.”
The Lightning dropped to 21-8-5.
“It’s not like the guys weren’t trying, we just didn’t generate anything,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. “We were just off and give credit to the Rangers. They did a [heck] of a job. We did get chances and the goalie was able to see them. We were a step slow, and our reaction time was a little bit off. When that happens, this is the result.”
Ryan Strome added a third goal in the opening frame to send the game into the first intermission with the Rangers up, 3-0.
The Rangers improved to 21-8-4.
Zibanejad completed the hat trick in the middle frame off a nifty pass from Chris Kreider.
“First one was on the power play, second one deflected off their stick, I think, and third one was a great play by ‘Krieds,'” Zibanejad said. “When you have that kind of momentum, you seem to make the right decisions of where to go, and pucks find you.”
Kreider had three assists in the win.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves in the Tampa loss.
“We didn’t get in his (Shesterkin) eyes,” the Lightning’s Pat Maroon said. “He was gloving a lot of pucks down and we made his life a lot easier. The biggest thing right now is we’re not getting shots around the goal, we’re not getting second and third opportunities. That’s how we play. That’s our offense.”
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