Brad Richards collected a goal and two assists as the New York Rangers scored four times in the second period and matched their best home start to a season in 19 years with a 4-3 triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
Captain Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik scored power-play goals and John Mitchell netted his first tally with New York, which recorded its seventh straight win at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers are 7-1-1 at home, matching the team's mark set in the 1992-93 season.
Henrik Lundqvist turned aside 24 shots to improve to 8-1-0 in November.
After James Neal collected his league-leading seventh power-play goal in the first period, New York found its scoring touch in the middle session.
Gaborik skated around Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz before wristing a goal-mouth feed to Callahan, who netted his ninth goal of the season at 8:01 of the second period.
Mitchell then gave the Rangers a lead just over six minutes later. Rookie Carl Hagelin skated into the zone before backhanding a feed to Mitchell, who wristed a shot from the left faceoff circle past Marc-Andre Fleury.
Richards doubled the advantage just 90 seconds later after using defenseman Brooks Orpik as a screen and wristing a shot over the glove over Fleury. Richards has scored in three straight games and five of his last seven.
Evgeni Malkin cleaned up a rebound with seven seconds remaining in the second and Pascal Dupuis extended his goal-scoring streak to three games after beating Lundqvist with a wrist shot early in the third.
Pittsburgh | NY Rangers | |
James Neal 2 | Points | Brad Richards 3 |
James Neal 1 | Goals | Brad Richards 1 |
Sidney Crosby 2 | Assists | Brad Richards 2 |
James Neal 1 | Power Play Goals | Ryan Callahan 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Marc-Andre Fleury .867 | Save Percentage | Henrik Lundqvist .889 |
Marc-Andre Fleury 26 | Saves | Henrik Lundqvist 24 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Pittsburgh | 27 | 3 | 1-4 | 4-6 | 23 | 17 |
NY Rangers | 30 | 4 | 2-6 | 3-4 | 19 | 40 |