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It appears the dam burst, allowing the New York Rangers to score a flood of goals this week. Two days after putting up a six spot in their first home-ice win of the season, the Rangers surpassed that total in a 7-3 road victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle each scored twice, and Artemi Panarin dished out four assists to lead a varied and high-powered Rangers attack. Eleven New York skaters made their way on to the score sheet, with Alexis Lafreniere, J.T. Miller, and Will Borgen also scoring goals.<\/p>\n
Igor Shesterkin made 33 saves, including 26 in the final two periods, for the Rangers (9-7-2), who are an NHL-best 8-1-1 on the road. Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed goals on the first three shots he faced and finished with only eight saves on 13 shots over two periods for the Lightning, who had won seven of their previous games. Jonas Johansson stopped six of seven shots in the third period.<\/p>\n
Though neither coach \u2014 Mike Sullivan of the Rangers, nor Jon Cooper of the Lightning \u2014 probably agrees, the first period was wildly entertaining. There were seven goals scored on 18 combined shots, and the Rangers skated into the first intermission with a 4-3 lead.<\/p>\n
Cuylle scored a power-play goal just 1:09 into the game and the Rangers never trailed the rest of the way. Mika Zibanejad picked off a a cross-ice Nikita Kucherov pass in the neutral zone moments later, and the Rangers scored off the ensuing rush. Zibanejad zipped a pass to his left and Miller chipped the puck past Vasilevskiy to make it 2-0 at 3:31.<\/p>\n
The Lightning got a rush goal themselves at 6:04, when rugged forward Scott Sabourin wired a left-circle shot over Shesterkin\u2019s glove. But 64 seconds later, Lafreniere restored New York\u2019s two-goal lead by scoring his fourth goal \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 off the rush.<\/p>\n
Zemgus Girgensons snuck a rebound short side past Shesterkin for his third goal at 13:59 to cut the Rangers lead to 3-2. But the Rangers had an answer again, when Borgen scored his first off the season, a wrist shot from between the circles that went off a defenseman\u2019s leg and changed direction up and over Vasilevskiy at 16:20.<\/p>\n
It was that kind of night for the two-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender.<\/p>\n
Yet, before the wild opening period ended, the Lightning cut into the Rangers lead again. This time Jake Guentzel scored on a short-handed breakaway at 17:32.<\/p>\n
The scoring pace settled down in the second period, though the Rangers were badly outplayed early on. The Lightning recorded six shots in the opening six minutes of the period and added two more on a power play soon after.<\/p>\n
Late in the period, the Rangers capitalized when Vasilevskiy lost his footing moving right to left to challenge Trocheck off the rush. As the Lightning goalie fell to the ice, Trocheck slid his first goal of the season under Vasilevskiy to make it 5-3 at 18:19 of the second period.<\/p>\n
Trocheck scored again, 5:03 into the third, and Cuylle potted his team-leading sixth goal into an empty net with 2:11 left to play<\/p>\n
The Rangers will try to keep this offensive explosion going Saturday, when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say that Panarin is on a serious heater. After a slow start offensively this season, the Breadman has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his past four games, coinciding with\u00a0<\/p>\n
Panarin followed that up with a brilliant offensive display in Tampa. He made a pretty feed to set up Lafreniere\u2019s goal, and an even more impressive pass to spring Trocheck on his first goal of the night. Bread also had a pair of secondary helpers, and a prime scoring chance of his own on the doorstep that he misfired on.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t look now, but Panarin took over the Rangers scoring lead Wednesday. He\u2019s got 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 18 games, after leading the Rangers in scoring each of the past six seasons.<\/p>\n
Shesterkin allowed three goals on 10 first-period shots, but shook that off in a big way. He didn\u2019t allow a goal and was simply outstanding the final two periods, stopping all 26 shots he faced.<\/p>\n
It all began in the first period, though. Shesterkin absolutely robbed Gage Goncalves on the doorstep following a brilliant back-door pass from Kucherov less than a minute after the Lightning pulled to within 3-2. It just may have been a game-altering save. Two minutes later, Borgen\u2019s goal made it 4-2 Rangers. Who knows if that scoring sequence even happens if Goncalves ties the game 3-3?<\/p>\n
And Shesterkin was the difference in the second period, when the Rangers were on their heels much of the time. Shesterkin was under fire in the third period, but stopped all 14 shots in an impressive finish to even his record at 6-6-2 this season.<\/p>\n
Not only did the Lightning score their first short-handed goal of the season \u2014 a beauty by Guentzel on a clean breakaway \u2014 but the home team\u2019s lineup was, to be honest, short-handed. The Lightning played without their top two defensemen \u2014 and two of the more reliable defenders in the League \u2014 with Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh each sidelined by injury. Forward Anthony Cirelli missed his second straight game and Dominic James landed on injured reserve.<\/p>\n
It only got worse when forward Brandon Hagel was steamrolled by Rangers defenseman Carson Soucy in the first period and didn\u2019t return to the game. To add insult to injury, the Rangers scored their third goal, with Soucy picking up an assist, on the ensuing rush the other way.<\/p>\n
Five of six Rangers defensemen recorded at least one point Wednesday. Adam Fox led the way \u2014 no surprise there \u2014 with two assists; he has 12 helpers and 15 points in 18 games. But how many of you had Borgen scoring his first goal since March 20 of last season on your Bingo card?<\/p>\n
Urho Vaakanainen played his 200th NHL game and had the primary assist on Trocheck\u2019s second goal. Vladislav Gavrikov had the secondary assist, setting Panarin off in full flight, on Trocheck\u2019s first goal. And Soucy leveled Hagel to start the rush the other way that Lafreniere finished with his third goal in the past four games.<\/p>\n
Braden Schneider? He had to settle for three hits and three blocked shots.<\/p>\n
Artemi Panarin is beginning to shake off his early season struggles.<\/p>\n
With a newly shaven head, the star Russian wing has posted nine points \u2014 three goals and six assists \u2014 in the last four games after assisting on four goals in the Rangers\u2019 7-3 win over the Lightning on Wednesday night at Benchmark International Arena.<\/p>\n
Just like that, Panarin leads the Rangers in points (16).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when he\u2019s at his best, the puck follows him around,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday after an optional morning skate. \u201cHe finds a way to have it a lot. I thought the last game he had it a lot. There are probably a number of reasons for that, but that\u2019s what the game looks like when he\u2019s at his best. I think he\u2019s a threat off the rush. I think he has an uncanny ability to delay or slow the play down and allow the rush to go by him and then create opportunity. I think he\u2019s getting better as far as supporting the play in the offensive zone. We\u2019re trying to encourage him to be a little bit closer to his linemates, and I think he\u2019s doing a better job there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought his line had more offensive zone time. I think that line has the ability to create offense in a number of different ways. They\u2019re going to be dangerous off the rush because they\u2019re talented, but they can build that grind game and they can be dangerous there also, because they\u2019re talented. But that takes collective effort there, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re trying to help them. But I thought the line in general had a strong game last game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artemi Panarin battles Jake Guentzel for the puck during the Rangers\u2019 7-3 blowout road win over the Lightning on Nov. 12, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite looking rather disconnected through the first few weeks of the season, Panarin has collected four multipoint games through the first 18 contests \u2014 including one three-point game and two four-point efforts.<\/p>\n The Rangers have a record ofare 4-0 every time Panarin has collected multiple points in a game this season.<\/p>\n \u201cMy confidence [is] OK now,\u201d Panarin said after his two-goal effort on Monday against the Predators. \u201cBetter than before.\u201d<\/p>\n Igor Shesterkin saved 33 of the 36 shots he faced in his sixth win of the season.<\/p>\n In a move he said was largely due to matchups, Sullivan shifted Will Cuylle up to play with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad toward the end of the second period and through the third.<\/p>\n \u201c[Lightning coach Jon Cooper] wanted that match with [Nikita] Kucherov, [Jake] Guentzel and Brayden Point,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe just felt like that\u2019s a tall task for a young kid [Gabe Perreault] that hasn\u2019t played a whole lot in the league. If that was going to be the match, we thought it made more sense to have a guy like Will play with J.T. and Mika in that circumstance. Some of it was just based on the feel of the game, but some of it was just from a matchup strategy standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rangers signed Spencer Martin to a two-year contract Wednesday before putting the 30-year-old goalie on waivers. If he clears, Martin will be assigned to Hartford.<\/p>\n Appearing in nine games for the Hurricanes last season, Martin posted a 3-4-1 record with an .846 save percentage and a 3.89 goals-against average.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It appears the dam burst, allowing the New York Rangers to score a flood of goals this week. Two days after putting up a six spot in their first home-ice win of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t