Rangers Blast Penguins As Blue Shirts Close in on Devils
RANGERS 6 – PENGUINS 0 / PANTHERS 4 – DEVILS 2
The Rangers not only love home cooking, they love beating up on the Penguins. For the second time in three days the Broadway Blueshirts beat their rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, this time by a score of 6-0.
Artemi Panarin scored twice, once on a power play to end the first period, and later to end the second period. In between his teammates did the rest.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, and Jacob Trouba all scored for the Rangers who find themselves five points behind the Devils for second place in the Metro Division.
Meanwhile, Igor Shesterkin was his usual stingy self, rescuing 34 saves as he earned his first shutout since Jaunary 11, a 1-0 overtime win over the Flyers.
That Kaner-Breadman connection. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/n7ceQT1Uo3
— x - New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 19, 2023
Meanwhile, down in South Beach, the Devils took one on the chin from the Florida Panthers. New Jersey carried a 2-0 lead into the third period before Florida stormed back to score all four of its goals in the final period of the night.
The loss is the third straight for Devils. Sam Reinhart scored the tying goal nearly eight minutes into the second period. About a minute later, Matthew Tkachuk netted his 32nd goal of the year for Florida to put the Panthers in front. Reinhart added one more goal for good measure in the waning seconds on an empty netter.
Nico Hirschier and Jesper Boqvist scored the only two goals for New Jersey.
