Rangers down Jets for 5th straight win
NEW YORK -- The New York Rangers continued to be offensive juggernauts this season as they reached the five-goal mark for a fifth-straight game in a 5-2 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.
The Rangers have won five in a row and eight of nine. They lead the NHL with 55 goals this season.
Kevin Hayes, J.T. Miller, Pavel Buchnevich, Mats Zuccarello and Jesper Fast scored for the Rangers. Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 shots to earn the win.
Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine scored for the Jets. Starting goaltender Connor Hellebuyck allowed 12 goals on 16 shots before being replaced by Michael Hutchinson late in the second period. Hutchinson made one save, as the Rangers didn't put on a shot on net in the third period.
Hayes put the Rangers ahead 1-0 at 2:12 of the first during a delayed penalty to the Jets. Hayes jumped onto the ice to replace Lundqvist and beat Hellebuyck with a long slap shot for his sixth goal of the season.
Laine evened the score at 1 by deflecting a point shot by defenseman Ben Chiarot. The goal at 10:45 was Laine's eighth of the season, which pulled him into a tie for the league lead with Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby.
The Rangers blew the game open with four goals in the second period.
It took more than half the period for the barrage to begin, but it started when Zuccarello converted a 3-on-1 with a wrist shot from the left wing over Hellebuyck's catching glove at 10:02.
After Scheifele scored two minutes later off a net-mouth scramble to make it a 2-2 tie, Miller, Fast and Buchnevich scored 4:04 apart to extend the lead to 5-2.
Miller also beat Hellebuyck's glove-side on an odd-man rush to make it 3-2 before Fast deflected a point blast from defenseman Kevin Klein to increase the lead to 4-2 and end Hellebyuck's night.
Hutchison was beaten by the first shot he faced 41 seconds after entering the game, a breakaway goal by Buchnevich that left the goaltender prone on the ice as the rookie picked the far corner while fading away from the net.
NOTES: The Jets have been besieged by injuries this season and were missing RW Joel Armia (lower body), C Mathieu Perreault (upper body), C Bryan Little (lower body), RW Drew Stafford (upper body), D Tyler Myers (lower body), D Mark Stuart (lower body) and C Shawn Matthias (lower body). ... The Jets are in the midst of a stretch of 28 games in 49 days. ... Rangers D Adam Clendening was back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 22, replacing D Dan Girardi, who was given a rest with the team playing back-to-back games. ... Rangers C Oscar Lindberg was a healthy scratch.