Rangers defeat Blue Jackets, extend point streak to six

COLUMBUS -- The New York Rangers extended their point streak to six games with a 5-4 shootout victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Jimmy Vesey scored the deciding goal in the bottom of the fifth round for the Rangers (8-7-2), who are 5-0-1 in the past six games. Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves, and stopped three of five shots in the shootout.
Georgiev had a strong third period when the Blue Jackets had an 11-2 shot advantage.
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Blue Jackets highlights]
"We kind of left him out to dry tonight," Rangers forward Kevin Hayes said. "We got hemmed in a bunch throughout the game. That's not what you want to do. Sometimes your goalie has to bail you out and that's what he did."
Vesey and Pavel Buchnevich each had a goal and an assist, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored, and Hayes had two assists for the Rangers.

Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and an assist; Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno and Alex Wennberg scored; Seth Jones had three assists and Joonas Korpisalo made 15 saves for the Blue Jackets (9-6-2), who are 2-0-2 in the past four games.
"We put in a ton of good minutes tonight. We're going to keep on working," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "We gave up some early odd-man rushes that cost us. That's our biggest weakness now, the stuff we give up for free."
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead on Zibanejad's seventh goal of the season at 5:54 of the first period off the rush to complete a 2-on-1.

Buchnevich got Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara to slide by to block the cross-ice pass. It didn't work, and Zibanejad finished the set-up to the paint.
Atkinson's power-play goal tied it 1-1 at 19:26.
Dubois pinpointed a backdoor pass to the right post. Atkinson's seventh goal was his first point in six games. He returned after missing the game at the Washington Capitals on Friday because of illness.

New York scored twice in 1:33 for a 3-1 lead, but Columbus scored 32 seconds apart to tie it 3-3 before two more goals, one apiece, made it 4-4 after two periods.
Buchnevich scored off another odd-man rush for a 2-1 lead at 6:57.
Kreider made it 3-1 at 8:30 on a tight tic-tac-toe play from Tony DeAngelo to Hayes to Kreider for his eighth goal on a tap-in.
"We had stretches of good minutes, stretches of not-so-good minutes," Jones said. "For the most part we played a well-checked game. When they went up 3-1, we responded well."
The Rangers led the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 in the third period Friday but lost 3-2 in overtime, and they let a lead slip away again.
Dubois' seventh made it 3-2 at 11:49 with a tip of a shot by Jones.
Foligno tied it 3-3 at 12:21 on a backhand move at the crease from a Boone Jenner pass.
Wennberg's first of the season came shorthanded at 16:03 to put the Blue Jackets ahead 4-3.
Jones picked off a Neal Pionk pass and passed ahead to Wennberg for his shot from the left circle that went in at the near post.
It was the first shorthanded goal of the season for Columbus.

"You're going to make mistakes. That's going to happen," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "It's how you react to it and recover from it. That's the key. That's what we're trying to do as a group."
Vesey tied it 4-4 at 19:07 when he picked the puck from the skates of defenseman David Savard for his sixth goal.
"It was demoralizing giving up three in row," Hayes said. "[Vesey] played well tonight. He got us going."

They said it

"I'm pretty emotionless but also pretty confident in shootouts because the guys are so skilled. They did a great job scoring three goals."-- Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev
"If you look at their goals it's kind of what we gave them, not what they did, which is disappointing a little bit." -- Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno

Need to know

Three of the Rangers' past six games have been decided in a shootout, and they are 4-0 in shootouts this season. The Blue Jackets played their first. … Zibanejad has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in the past 13 games, including five points (two goals, three assists) in the past four. … Hayes has six assists in the past three games. … Jones has six assists in the past four games. … Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin has an assist in three straight games. … Wennberg played his 300th NHL game. … The Blue Jackets are 4-for-8 on the power play the past three games after an 0-for-20 stretch.

What's next

Rangers:Host the Vancouver Canucks on Monday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, SNP, NHL.TV)
Blue Jackets:At the Dallas Stars on Monday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW+, FS-O, NHL.TV)