For the second game in a row against the Philadelphia Flyers, Mika Zibanejad scored a natural hat to lead the New York Rangers to an 8-3 victory. The Rangers had jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second period before hanging on for the win. The Rangers have recorded eight goals in a road game for the first time since Mar. 18, 2014, at Ottawa.
The Flyers got a goal from Claude Giroux in the second period. This ended, to coin a basketball phrase, a 15-0 run of goals the Rangers had scored against Philadelphia in the last two games. Per the NHL Public Relations, the 15 consecutive Ranger goals against the Flyers were tied for the third-most against one opponent in franchise history. The top two were 17 consecutive against the New York Islanders in 1972-73 and the California Golden Seals in 1974-75.
Adam Fox had five points and five assists in the contest while Ryan Strome added four points with a goal and three assists. Pavel Buchnevich has two goals in the win. Two of the team’s younger players, Filip Chytil and K’Andre Miller also added goals.
Igor Shesterkin returned to action after missing the last 11 games due to a groin injury. He saves 41 shots in the game.
Carter Hart started in net for the Flyers. He was pulled after giving up five goals on the first 11 Rangers shots.
Recently, the New York Ranger’s offensive outburst has lead to many records and streaks.
Thanks to the fine people at the NHL Public Relations and NYR Stats&Info, the New York Rangers have had many accomplishments in recent games, including this one.
The list starts with Zibanejad. With his second consecutive six-point game, Zibanejad has become the first player in NHL history to record 6+ points in consecutive games played against one opponent within a regular season. Also, he is the second Ranger who has posted two different six-point games in franchise history (along with Anders Hedberg) and the first to do so in the same season.
A modest Zibanejad talked about his recent hot-streak in his post-game Zoom conference. “The puck seems to be going in right now. It’s nice to be able to contribute offensively for this team, especially since the first part of the season. Obviously, it is a great feeling when you win and you can contribute.”
For Fox, he tied single-game Rangers franchise records for defensemen with five assists and five points in tonight’s game. The other defenseman with five was Brian Leetch, who did that on April 18, 1995, against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Between Zibanejad and Fox, the Rangers have had a forward and a defenseman each tally five points in the same game for the first time in franchise history. The last time the New York Rangers had two players record five or more points in the same game was when Mark Messier and Adam Graves did that in November of 1992 at Pittsburgh.
Finally, Zibanejad, Strome, and Fox have each recorded four or more points tonight. Prior to tonight’s game, the last time the Rangers had three players tally four or more points in the same game was Dec. 28, 2005, at the New York Islanders.
The teams will square off again Saturday afternoon. It will be interesting to see how the game starts as the Flyers were clearly frustrated by the second straight big loss to the Blueshirts. There were a handful of physical altercations within the last couple of minutes of the game.