The Rangers answered the loss of Igor Shesterkin with a loud home-ice performance Sunday, rolling past the Vancouver Canucks 6-2 at Madison Square Garden behind 19 saves from Dylan Garand.
New York had learned a day earlier that Shesterkin’s lower-body injury, sustained in Friday’s 3-1 defeat to the Washington Capitals, would end his season. Garand was handed the chance to take over as the club’s top goaltender, and the Rangers gave him plenty of breathing room while moving to 5-2-0. They are now 4-0-0 in their building.
Tye Kartye and Will Cuylle each struck twice, their first two goals of the campaign. Alexis Lafreniere finished with a goal and an assist, Gabe Perreault also had a goal and an assist, and J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad supplied two assists apiece.
Kartye put the Garden crowd into the game almost immediately, scoring just 27 seconds after the opening faceoff. Vancouver settled in and pulled even late in the first when Jake DeBrusk beat Garand from a tight angle in the left circle at 17:04.
Cuylle restored the Rangers’ advantage 2:09 into the middle period, wiring a shot from the top of the left circle over Kevin Lankinen’s glove. The Canucks answered again while short-handed: defenseman Elias Pettersson joined the rush and made it 2-2 at 16:56.
That tie did not last long. With 1:35 remaining in the second, Vladislav Gavrikov started a clean exit, Miller carried the play across the offensive zone and moved the puck to Kartye. From the left circle, Kartye snapped a near-side shot past Lankinen at 18:25 to put New York ahead for good.
Rangers pull away in the third
Perreault opened the third period on the first power-play unit in place of Pavel Dorofeyev, and the switch paid off quickly. He found Lafreniere for a power-play goal at 1:04, extending the margin to 4-2.
Lafreniere scored with Lankinen outside his crease after contact involving Miller near the blue paint. Officials briefly discussed the sequence before allowing the goal to stand, and Vancouver did not ask for a coach’s challenge.
Perreault then tipped Adam Fox’s shot at 5:57 to make it 5-2. Cuylle closed the scoring at 15:22, driving home a rebound for his second of the afternoon.
Lankinen stopped 19 shots for Vancouver, which fell to 2-5-0 and has now dropped four straight. The Canucks found a pair of timely equalizers through DeBrusk and Pettersson, but could not contain the Rangers once New York reclaimed the lead late in the second.
