NEW YORK — Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin each had four points and the New York Rangers beat the Anaheim Ducks 6-4 at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
Zibanejad, who had two goals and two assists, has a team record of four goals. Panarin, who had a goal and three assists, leads New York with 10 points (two goals, eight assists), the most all-time by a Rangers player in the first four games of a season.
Adam Fox got three assists and Vincent Trocheck scored a goal and an assist for New York (3-1-0), 3 for 4 on the power play. Igor Shesterkin made 18 saves.
“I think we’ve seen over the last few years that special teams in the playoffs and late in the season are one of the biggest factors for teams that win the Stanley Cup, teams that win,” Trocheck said. “If we can continue the success on the power play, polish our penalty kill and polish our defensive game, I think we’re in the right place.”
Video: ANA@NYR: Zibanejad strikes home for PPG
Trevor Zegras marked, and Pavol Regenda and Troy Terry each had two assists for Anaheim (1-2-0), which was coming off a 7-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday and allowed 17 goals in its first three games.
John Gibson allowed five goals on 34 shots before being retired after the second period. Antoine Stolarz made eight relief stops.
Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said Gibson was “hit” by a slapshot from Zibanejad in the second period, which played a role in his absence for the third period, trailing 5-2.
“There was something going on there with his body and just with the scoring, where he was at, I didn’t think it was a really smart move to send him back in there,” Eakins said.
Video: ANA@NYR: Zegras draws one to equalize in 2nd
New York took a 2-0 lead in the first period on power play goals. Trocheck scored a backdoor on a Zibanejad pass at 7:34, and Zibanejad beat the Ducks forward MaxJones at the bottom of the right faceoff circle and scored a pass from Trocheck at 1:10.
“We get a lot of pucks and that’s usually when things open up on the power play,” Zibanejad said. “And I think we have a pretty good squad, two squads, capable of making those plays when they’re there.”
Frank Vatrano made it 2-1 at 15:48, and Zegras tied it 2-2 at 1:34 of the second.
“Their one power-play goal in the first period was a giveaway, absolute missed responsibility, and in the second period we gave them two gifts, I mean absolute gifts,” Eakins said. “So we give them three easy ones and lose by two. That’s what’s disappointing because there’s been improvement in our game in a number of areas and then it’s all wiped out by missed responsibilities.”
Kaapo Kakko scored at 9:54, deflecting Zibanejad’s shot off Gibson’s pad and Ducks defender John Klingbergskates to bring the score to 3-2.
Alexis Lafreniere scored his first of the season at 17:39 with a one-timer from the slot on a pass from Philippe Chytil who went between the Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirkthe legs off for the 4-2 lead.
Panarin scored with a wrist shot between the top of the circles to make it 5-2 at 19:26. It happened seconds after Rangers intercepted Klingberg’s pass outside the defensive zone.
“You look at the teams that are champions in this league, whether it’s Colorado, Tampa, St. Louis, they never won because they were good, they won because they worked,” Eakins said. . “They work and they’re relentless with it. It doesn’t matter if they have the puck or they don’t have the puck, they work. It’s part of our development process here and our growth process is that when we don’t have the puck don’t have the puck, we have to work harder.”
Video: ANA@NYR: Panarin comes home from the high slot
Max Comtois scored on a one-timer from the right circle at 5:33 of the third to make it 5-3, but Shesterkin made back-to-back saves on Zegras with his left pad and Adam Henry on the rebound with his glove to hold the two-goal lead 11 minutes from time.
Zibanejad extended New York’s lead to 6-3 with his second power-play goal on a one-timer from the left circle off a Panarin pass at 11:42.
Derek Grant scored at 16:14 for the final 6-4.
“We have a few things we need to work on, but I like the way we come together as a team,” Trocheck said. “I love how we’re gaining more and more chemistry every game. That kind of stuff is hugely importantant.”
REMARKS: Rangers paid video tribute to Ducks center Ryan Strome during the first television downtime. Strome played 263 games for New York and had 195 points (71 goals, 124 assists) from 2018-22, before signing a five-year contract with Anaheim as a free agent on July 13. He had a shot on goal and a blocked shot in 7:05 p.m. of ice time. … Rangers forward Samy Blais had three shots on goal, six shot attempts and three hits in 13:34 in his first NHL game since Nov. 14, 2021, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury. He missed the first three games of this season with an upper body injury. … Vatrano played in 22 games and had 13 points (eight goals, five assists) last season for New York after being acquired from the Florida Panthers on March 16. He signed a three-year contract with the Ducks on July 13.
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