Zibanejad, Panarin lead Rangers to 5-2 win over Canadiens

NEW YORK — Mika Zibanejad had two goals and an assist, Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists, and the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Sunday night.

Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere also scored, and Igor Shesterkin had 26 saves to help the Rangers get their 53rd win to tie a franchise record set in 2014-15. New York has won eight of its last nine games and 13 of the last 16 contests at home.

The Rangers have 110 points to lead Boston by three points for the most in the NHL. New York is also five points up on Carolina for first in the Metropolitan Division. All three teams have four games remaining.

“Mika and Kreids played with really good energy tonight,” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, who plugged in the versatile Jimmy Vesey on right wing with Kreider and Zibanjead. “Their line was effective.”

Cole Caulfield and Alex Newhook had goals for Montreal, which has lost three straight. Mike Matheson had two assists and Cayden Primeau finished with 41 saves. The Canadiens will miss the playoffs for the third straight season.

“This is tough building to come into,” Primeau said. ”They are a good team. At the end of the day, you want to be competing against top teams.”

Kreider tipped in Panarin’s shot 3:59 of the third to snap a 1-1 tie. It was Kreider’s 38th goal this season and his 109th career goal on the power play, moving him past Rod Gilbert for second-most in franchise history. Kreider has goals in five of his last six games.

“I try to shoot the puck to him every time,” Panarin said. “He has good position, tips it.”

Panarin then scored his team-leading 46th at 6:09 to put the Rangers ahead 3-1. The 32-year-old Russian forward has 115 points, trailing only Jaromir Jagr’s 123 in 2005-06 for the most in franchise history. He has points in 63 of New York’s 78 games this season.

“Elite players do that with consistency,” Laviolette said of Panarin’s production. ”His statistics the last seven or eight years are incredible. This year is his best. He’s been doing a really good job for a really long time.”

Newhook made it 3-2 with 7:47 to go with his 13th.

Zibanejad scored his second of the night and 26th of the season with 3:04 remaining before Lafreniere completed the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:15 left for his career-high 27th.

Lafreniere has 24 points, including 12 goals, in his last 24 games. And the Rangers are 20-1-1 when he scores a goal this season.

Caufield opened the scoring with 30 seconds remaining in the first period, banking the puck off Shesterkin from behind the net. The goal was his 24th and came in Caufield’s 200th NHL game.

Zibanejad tied it with a power-play goal with 7:29 remaining in the second. Panarin had an assist on the play to extend his points streak to nine games. Fox also had an assist to give him points in 12 of his last 14 games.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said he hopes to derive positives in his club’s remaining four games. Montreal is last in the Atlantic Division with 70 points, a year after they also finished last with 68.

“We’re doing a good job at being process-driven,” said St. Louis, who became coach of the Canadiens late in the 2021-22 campaign. ”We’re not quite there yet but we’re getting closer.”

Before the game, New York’s Vincent Trocheck received the annual Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, voted by fans and presented to the Rangers player who goes “above and beyond the call of duty.” The award, first given to Jan Erixon in 1988, honors the New York police officer who was shot in Central Park in 1986 and left paralyzed from the neck down. McDonald publicly forgave the teenager who shot him and became a symbol of grace, generosity and determination. He passed away at age 59 in January 2017.

“It’s obviously a really big honor,” Trocheck said. ”I’ve only been here two years. For me to get that means a lot.”

RED WINGS 3, SABRES 1

DETROIT — Lucas Raymond, Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin all scored in the first period and Alex Lyon made 37 saves as Detroit beat Buffalo.

The win gives Detroit 84 points, moving them past idle Pittsburgh and Philadelphia into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Washington Capitals could pass them with a victory over the Ottawa Senators later Sunday as they have more regulation wins than the Red Wings.

Raymond opened the scoring 53 seconds into the game as he scored his 26th of the season. In 12 games against the Sabres, he has five goals and 10 assists.

WILD 4, BLACKHAWKS 0

CHICAGO — Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist, rookie Jesper Wallstedt made 24 saves in posting his first NHL shutout and Minnesota beat Chicago.

Wallstedt, who gave up seven goals on 34 shots in his NHL debut at Dallas on Jan. 10, got the shutout in his first time back in net for the Wild. The Blackhawks were shut out for an NHL-high 13th time this season.

The victory keeps Minnesota’s slim playoff hopes alive. It has 83 points with five games remaining. Vegas and Nashville, the top two wild-card teams in the Western Conference, entered Sunday with 92 points.

The Wild scored three goals in the second period. Kaprizov started the outburst on a power-play at 1:06 with a hard wrist shot from the right crease to hit the 40-goal mark for the third straight season.

Marco Rossi beat Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom for a 2-0 lead at 12:31, sneaking away from defenseman Nikita Zaitsev to one-time Mats Zuccarello’s pass. About six minutes later, Frederick Gaudreau stationed himself in the slot and tipped Zach Bogosian’s drive over Soderblom’s right shoulder.

HURRICANES 3, BLUE JACKETS 0

RALEIGH, N.C. — Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for his third shutout in his past seven games and Carolina scored two first-period goals in their regular-season home finale to beat Columbus.

Andrei Svechnikov scored 17 seconds into the game after a one-game absence and Sebastian Aho also scored in the opening period as the Hurricanes won for the fourth time in five games. Teuvo Teravainen, who had an earlier assist, added a third-period goal.

Andersen was back in the win column after his first loss in eight outings since returning to action last month. He had been sidelined since November, but now he has 27 career shutouts.

Blue Jackets goalie Malcolm Subban, in his season debut in an NHL game, stopped 32 shots, but Columbus was blanked for the fifth time this season.

COYOTES 5, SHARKS 2

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Lawson Crouse, Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller each had a goal and an assist, and Arizona beat San Jose.

With the game tied 2-all entering the third, Dylan Guenther scored just under five minutes into the period. Keller added an insurance goal with a slap shot at 14:13, and Schmaltz scored into an empty net.

Liam O’Brien also scored for Arizona and Connor Ingram had 25 saves.

Luke Kunin and Henry Thrun scored for San Jose, and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 23 shots.

The Coyotes notched a win to begin a five-game road trip before finishing the season at home against the Edmonton Oilers. After a winless stretch that spanned more than a month from late January to the end of February that effectively ended Arizona’s playoff hopes, the Coyotes are 10-8 since.

The Sharks have lost 12 of 14, but entered the game 2-2 in their last four. The Coyotes swept the season series over Sharks for the second time in franchise history.

SENATORS 3, CAPITALS 2, OT

WASHINGTON — Charlie Lindgren allowed three goals on 21 shots, the last by Jake Sanderson in overtime and Washington lost a sixth consecutive game, a defeat to Ottawa that’s yet another blow to their playoff hopes late in the NHL season.

The Capitals sit on the outside looking in with five games left to play, despite goals from Max Pacioretty and Aliaksei Protas. They’re tied with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia one point back of Detroit for the second and final wild card in the Eastern Conference and two behind the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

They visit the Red Wings on Tuesday night in a game that could prove pivotal in the postseason chase, though losing to Ottawa already put Washington in a difficult spot.

This one fell apart similarly to Friday, when the Caps allowed the go-ahead goal to Carolina with 1:51 left in regulation. This time, Ridley Greig scored with 7:17 left in regulation and Sanderson got the winner 41 seconds into 3-on-3 OT.

In addition to losing the game, they also lost defenseman Rasmus Sandin to what the team called an upper-body injury. His head hit a stanchion after getting bumped on his final shift.

PREDATORS 3, DEVILS 2, SO

NEWARK, N.J. — Ryan O’Reilly scored the deciding shootout goal to lift Nashville over New Jersey.

Roman Josi and Luke Evangelista scored for the Predators, and Filip Forsberg and O’Reilly each had two assists.

Jack Hughes and Chris Tierney scored for the Devils in regulation.

Evangelista’s power-play goal with 7:15 left in the third period tied it at 2-2.

The Devils, who recorded a franchise-best 112 points last season, won for the second straight night, but are currently on the outside of a wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with just four games remaining. New Jersey defeated Ottawa 4-3 on Saturday.

Tierney’s fourth goal of the season gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead on a feed from Tomas Nosek at 2:11 of the second period.

Jake Allen stopped 29 shots for the Devils.

BLUES 6, DUCKS 5

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jordan Kyrou scored in the shootout and the St. Louis Blues beat the Anaheim Ducks to preserve their slim playoff hopes.

Robert Thomas had a goal and three assists, and Zack Bolduc, Matthew Kessel, Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn also scored to help the Blues bounce back from a disastrous 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose on Saturday. Jordan Binnington finished with 33 saves through overtime and Kyrou had three assists.

Frank Vatrano and Leo Carlsson each had two goals, and Nikita Nesterenko also scored in the Ducks’ 14the lss in 16 games. Alex Killorn had an assist for his 500th career point, and Lukas Dostal made 26 saves.

Having come into the game with a narrow path to reach the postseason, likely needing to win their final five games and have either Nashville or Vegas go on a major regulation losing streak, St. Louis escaped with two points despite giving up two two-goal leads.

In the tiebreaker, Kyrou converted on the Blues’ first attempt, and Binnington saved tries by Carlsson and Troy Terry after Trevor Zegras hit the post.

Buchnevich gave the Blues a 4-2 lead early in the second period on a one-timer from the right circle for his 27th of the season. Carlsson cut it to 4-3 at 1:02 of the third period, but Schenn scored his own power-play goal to restore the two-goal advantage at 2:40.

Vatrano scored his second of the night at 8:04, and Carlsson tied it up at 5 with 3:51 remaining.