Tony DeAngelo and Ryan Strome scored power-play goals in the second period, Greg McKegg added a short-handed goal in the third, and the host New York Rangers beat the struggling Detroit Red Wings 5-1 on Wednesday night.
The Rangers won for the fourth time in six games. They rebounded nicely from a 6-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Monday by producing their second game with two power-play goals and scoring their third short-handed goal.
Chris Kreider added an even-strength goal for the Rangers, who halted a five-game losing streak to the Red Wings despite playing without Mika Zibanejad. The 26-year-old center missed his fourth consecutive game due to an upper-body injury sustained on a hit by Boston's Patrice Bergeron on Oct. 27.
Artemi Panarin capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 2:37 remaining.
New York's Henrik Lundqvist returned after not playing the previous three games and made 35 saves to notch the win.
Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit, which lost its seventh straight road game and fourth straight overall. The Red Wings have been outscored 22-5 during the four-game skid and are also 1-11-1 in their past 13 games, with nine of those losses coming by at least three goals.
Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard allowed four goals on 30 shots. He was pulled with 5:43 remaining for the extra attacker but returned after Panarin scored.
After there was little action in the opening 20 minutes, the Rangers struck for three goals in a span of 4:24 in the first half of the second period.
DeAngelo made it 1-0 at 4:25 when he lifted a shot into the vacated right side of the net after getting a pass through the crease from Brendan Lemieux.
The Rangers took a 2-0 lead at 6:04 when Kreider was wide open near the right boards and got a cross-ice pass from Pavel Buchnevich. Kreider lifted a wrist shot over Howard well before Filppula could cover.
Strome made it 3-0 at 8:49 when he used his right shoulder to deflect a long shot by defenseman Adam Fox over Howard's stick.
Filppula finished off an odd-man rush with Andreas Athanasiou by lifting a shot over the stick of a sprawling Lundqvist 52 seconds after Strome scored.
McKegg made it 4-1 with 11:16 remaining when he swept his own rebound into the net after Howard lost sight of the puck and after Tyler Bertuzzi fell to the ice attempting to clear the puck.
--Field Level Media
Detroit | NY Rangers | |
Valtteri Filppula 1 | Points | Tony DeAngelo 2 |
Valtteri Filppula 1 | Goals | Tony DeAngelo 1 |
Andreas Athanasiou 1 | Assists | Pavel Buchnevich 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Tony DeAngelo 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Greg McKegg 1 |
Jimmy Howard .867 | Save Percentage | Henrik Lundqvist .972 |
Jimmy Howard 26 | Saves | Henrik Lundqvist 35 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Detroit | 36 | 1 | 0-2 | 1-3 | 6 | 35 |
NY Rangers | 31 | 5 | 2-3 | 2-2 | 4 | 25 |