Kreider has two goals, assist for Rangers in victory against Panthers

NEW YORK --Chris Kreider scored two goals to give him an NHL-leading 33, and the New York Rangers ended the Florida Panthers' four-game winning streak, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

Each of Kreider's goals came on the power play, giving him 17, also the most in the NHL. He had an assist for his fourth game with at least three points this season.
"Having a power play that can capitalize on them taking penalties, and potentially taking the kind of penalties that they're trying to send a message that they're not going to be bullied, it backs them off and makes them think twice about doing those things," Kreider said.
Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists for his sixth game with at least three points this season. Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist, and Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves for the Rangers (30-13-4), who don't play again until Feb. 15.
"Personally, I think we need it," New York coach Gerard Gallant said of the break. "We played so many games on the road (26), played 47 games, second most in the league. I don't mind it. The good part about the (All-Star) break is we're coming back and we've got four great days to practice before we play our first game. We'll practice on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th and we play on the 15th. Those are four good days."

Sam Reinhart and Anthony Duclair scored, and Spencer Knight made 30 saves for the Panthers (32-10-5), who are off until Feb. 16. It was Florida's third regulation loss since Dec. 29 (14-3-1).
"I think for the most part we've played really well," Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. "We had a lot of hockey and a lot of travel and we're starting to run on fumes here a little bit tonight. But our guys have done an unbelievable job of bringing energy night in and night out. It's been a tough month, and it's a well-deserved little break and refresh for them, and [we'll] get back going in about 10 days or two weeks."
Zibanejad scored 35 seconds into the first period to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. His pass off the rush to Ryan Reaves went in off Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling.
Duclair made it 1-1 at 10:44. The Panthers outshot the Rangers 15-7 in the first period.
Reinhart scored a power-play goal off a rebound of Aleksander Barkov's shot off the rush at 2:18 of the second period to give Florida a 2-1 lead.
"We were a little too passive, showed a little too much respect, and that's what happens," Gallant said.

Alexis Lafreniere took advantage of a Florida defensive-zone turnover to tie it 2-2 at 3:27.
"It's typical of being invested on the forecheck and they turn the puck over," Gallant said. "That was definitely a big part of the game."
Brunette said he thought the Panthers sagged after Lafreniere's goal.
"I just found we had trouble rebounding off of that," Brunette said. "We didn't really have the energy after that one."
Kreider gave New York a 3-2 lead when he scored a power-play goal at 17:25.

Shesterkin played the puck out of the air with his blocker to Panarin, who stretched the puck up the ice to Ryan Strome at the far blue line. Strome passed to Kreider cutting to the net for the redirection goal. Kreider pointed back at Shesterkin after the goal to acknowledge his play.
"Igor is just an outlier in terms of playing the puck, having that element," Kreider said. "I mean, I've never had that before. I think it's easier on the defensemen. It certainly helps in a situation like that. He's probably a better passer and has better hands than I do. It adds a ton of value to the team."
Kreider made it 4-2 at 14:39 of the third period with a power-play goal from in front of the right post off a pass from Zibanejad. Panarin scored an empty-net goal at 19:19 for the 5-2 final.
"We're trying to get to a point where we play a full 60 minutes," Zibanejad said. "Obviously it wasn't our best first period, but still, that's a good team, and you're going to have times during a game when the other team has momentum and you've just got to try to ride it out and get the momentum back to your side. I thought that's what we did today."
NOTES:Panarin became the fourth undrafted player to begin his NHL career with seven consecutive 50-point seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky (15, 1979-94), Peter Stastny (12, 1980-92) and Mike Ridley (nine, 1985-94). … Kreider has scored 12 goals in his past 10 games. … Panarin has scored 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) in his past nine games, with six multipoint games. … Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad had an assist for his 41st point (10 goals, 31 assists) to tie his NHL career high. He scored 41 points (five goals, 36 assists) in 2019-20. … Gallant became the 51st coach to win 300 NHL games. He is 300-229-55 with four ties in 588 games in 10 seasons with the Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights. … The Rangers are 12-2-0 against the Atlantic Division.