Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists and the New York Rangers rode a four-goal first period Tuesday to an 8-4 pasting of the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
Adam Fox had a goal and two assists for the Rangers, and Colin Blackwell, Kaapo Kakko, Mika Zibanejad, Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich added a goal and an assist apiece.
Rookie Alexis Lafreniere also scored his sixth goal of the year for New York, which is 3-0-1 in its past four games. Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 41 saves.
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Mike Matheson had a goal and assist, and Jared McCann, Jake Guentzel and Brian Dumoulin also scored for Pittsburgh, which dropped it second straight.
Tristan Jarry, after a two-game injury absence, allowed four goals on 11 shots in the first before being relieved by Casey DeSmith, who made 10 saves.
New York took a 1-0 lead at 1:35 of the first when Blackwell’s pass banked in off Matheson. Zibanejad scored on a rebound at 7:28 to push it to 2-0.
On a Rangers power play, Panarin lofted a shot through a screen at 9:58 for a 3-0 lead.
The Penguins answered 40 seconds later, also on a power play, as McCann scored from the top of the left circle through Fox’s legs and under Shesterkin’s pads.
With 17.7 seconds left in the first, Strome scored from above the right dot on a short-side screened shot during another power play to make it 4-1.
Lafreniere made it 5-1 at 12:20 of the second on a severe-angle shot that got behind DeSmith and was knocked over the goal line by Pittsburgh’s John Marino. Sixteen seconds later, Matheson closed it to 5-2 on a rising shot from the left circle.
The Rangers got their third power-play goal at 6:10 of the third, on Kakko’s tip of a Trouba shot for a 6-2 lead.
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Matheson’s backhand pass set up Guentzel’s one-timer to close it to 6-3 at 8:04 of the third.
At 10:22 of the third, Fox, who extended his point streak to 11 games, scored short-handed, and Buchnevich scored 19 seconds later to boost it to 8-3.
Dumoulin’s goal with 1:24 left made it 8-4.
–Field Level Media