Rangers score 6 goals in 1st, blank Predators for 4th straight win

NEW YORK --The New York Rangers tied a team record for most goals in a first period with six, and Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves for his first shutout in more than two years in a 7-0 win against the Nashville Predators at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Halak's last shutout came on March 11, 2021, when he made 27 saves against the Rangers as a member of the Boston Bruins.
"I'm pretty sure guys have something to prove over here that we have a good team and want more," said Halak, who also got his first assist of the season.
K'Andre Miller became the first defenseman in Rangers history to get four points (two goals, two assists) in a single period. Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists, Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist and Tyler Motte and Filip Chytil also scored in the first period.
The Rangers (41-19-10) have won four games in a row and six of seven (6-0-1), including a 6-0 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
New York remained five points behind the New Jersey Devils, who defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday, for second place in the Metropolitan Division and six behind the Carolina Hurricanes for first. The Rangers' next two games are against the Hurricanes; at home on Tuesday and in Carolina on Thursday.
"It's good for the confidence that we showed we can play for 60 minutes every shift, 100 percent," Chytil said. "We have to keep it going for the next games."

Kevin Lankinen allowed four goals on five shots before being relieved 9:09 into the first by Juuse Saros, who allowed goals on the first two shots and finished with 26 saves.
"We had a horrible start to the game, left our goalies out to dry and just never gave ourselves a chance," Nashville defenseman Tyson Barrie said. "Good learning experience. You can't come out and lay an egg like that early and expect to be in games."
The Predators (34-26-8) have lost three in a row (0-2-1), including a 3-2 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. They remained five points behind the Jets, who lost 3-0 to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Nashville played without defenseman Roman Josi for the first time this season. He is day to day with an upper-body injury.
"We've just got to be a lot sharper in a lot of [areas] of the game," Predators forward Colton Sissons said. "This is a part of the journey. We have a new group. We've been through a lot of adversity. Even the best of teams, look at Pittsburgh last night, they lost 6-0 with Sidney Crosby on that team. This happens in this league. It's all about how you bounce back."
Chytil scored his first goal in 19 games to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 2:37 of the first. It was his 20th goal of the season.
"Feels great, finally," Chytil said. "It was a long time."
Zibanejad scored on a one-timer from below the left face-off circle at 7:22 to make it 2-0.
Motte made it 3-0 with a one-timer from the right circle at 8:14, and Miller scored during a 4-on-4 off a 2-on-1 to give New York a 4-0 lead at 9:09.
Panarin made it 5-0 during a 4-on-3 from the top of the left circle at 10:01, and Miller scored from the right point to extend the lead to 6-0 at 13:36.
"I mean, quite literally it just felt like everything I touched was somehow finding the back of the net at the end of the play," Miller said. "I wish every game was like that."

The Rangers scored six goals in the first period on six straight shots. The last time they scored six in the first period was Dec. 15, 1999, against the Los Angeles Kings.
"The first thing is to realize it's not going to be six or seven every night but having that said, it's just the confidence of knowing that we can score," Zibanejad said. "I don't think, especially the last two games, we've been cheating for offense or abandoning the [defensive] zone just to play offense. I think we've been doing it the right way. We have the confidence. We have the feeling in here that we know that we can score."
Chris Kreider added one more goal at 9:02 of the second period, scoring off a rebound to make it 7-0.
The Rangers have scored 15 unanswered goals since the third period of their 4-2 win against the Penguins on Thursday. It's the longest streak of consecutive goals by any team in the NHL this season.
"We have success when we're playing simple and playing direct, getting pucks in behind their defensemen and just making it hard on the other team," Miller said. "When we use our speed and use our skill, I mean those are two things that are pretty hard to stop on this team."
NOTES:The Rangers are the sixth team in NHL history to have at least two straight shutout wins when scoring at least six goals in both games. They join the 1958-59 Montreal Canadiens (two), 1970-71 Boston Bruins (two), 1972-73 Rangers (three), 1975-76 Montreal Canadiens (two), and 1977-78 Philadelphia Flyers (two). ... The Rangers five goals in 10:01 of the first period are the fastest in team history. … Zibanejad has scored in four consecutive games (five goals) and has four straight multipoint games (five goals, four assists). … Panarin extended his point streak to four games (two goals, four assists). … New York forward Vincent Trocheck has a five-game assist streak (eight assists). … Kreider has scored in three straight games (four goals). ... Predators defenseman Jordan Gross had one shot on goal and was minus-1 in 19:21 of ice time after being recalled from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League earlier Sunday.