Buchnevich scores hat trick on birthday, lifts Rangers past Devils

NEW YORK -- Pavel Buchnevich scored a hat trick on his 26th birthday, and the New York Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils for the third time this week, 6-3 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Buchnevich is the first Rangers player to score a hat trick on his birthday. It was his first NHL hat trick.
"Really happy for him," New York coach David Quinn said. "He's a great kid, he works hard, and he means an awful lot to our team."
Artemi Panarin scored four points (one goal, three assists), Mika Zibanejad had three assists, and Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves for the Rangers (22-16-6), who defeated the Devils 3-0 at New Jersey on Tuesday and 4-0 here on Thursday.
The Rangers are fifth in the eight-team MassMutual East Division, four points behind the fourth-place Boston Bruins, who have two games in hand. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"We're feeling good," Panarin said. "Obviously, we're winning a lot, but other teams ahead of us are winning as well. We will keep on winning and we need a little help."

The Devils (14-23-6) tried to rally from 4-0 down with goals Michael McLeod, P.K. Subban and Yegor Sharangovich but lost their fifth game in a row in regulation. Aaron Dell made 24 saves.
The teams will play for a fourth straight time at Prudential Center on Sunday.
"We've talked about this, New Jersey, Buffalo, the teams that are out of it, they're going to play their [tails] off, and if we think it's ever going to be easy we're sadly, sadly mistaken," Quinn said. "I wasn't surprised with the pushback we got from them. … We have a very, very difficult game tomorrow, that's for sure."
Buchnevich gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 7:26 of the first period, scoring on a 2-on-1 with Zibanejad.
The Devils committed back-to-back penalties shortly after, with Damon Severson going to the box for interference at 9:06 and a miscommunication among the defensemen leading to a too many men on the ice penalty 46 seconds later.
Ryan Strome scored a 5-on-3 goal at 10:27 to make it 2-0, and Buchnevich scored during a 5-on-4 1:21 later to give New York a 3-0 lead.
"Killed ourselves," Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. "Shot ourselves in the foot. Terrible communication between our 'D', we ended up with too many men on the ice. We came out the way we wanted. We had the energy. We were playing the game the right way. But for me you give that team with that skill a 5-on-3 you're giving them every opportunity to create some momentum."

Panarin extended the lead to 4-0 at 32 seconds of the second period.
McLeod's goal at 12:37 made it 4-1 and ended Shesterkin's shutout streak at 152:37. It also ended his shutout streak against the Devils at 199:23, the longest by a Rangers goalie against a single opponent.
Subban made it 4-2 with a slap shot from the top of the right circle at 5:34 of the third period. Sharangovich made it 4-3 at 6:38. Each goal was at 4-on-4.
"After we got the first one you could see we were kind of rolling," Devils forward Nathan Bastian said.

The Rangers called timeout after Sharangovich's goal.
"They were just winning way too many 1-on-1 battles," Quinn said. "It's really a reflection of where we were mentally. And it was leading up. The 4-on-4 exposed where we were mentally. Once we got up 4-0, I really thought we disrespected the game and our opponent."
The Devils couldn't score on a power play that started at 14:05.
"I thought we had them on the ropes in the third," Ruff said. "Even after the timeout we were still coming at them. We had some opportunities in tight. Our power play could have made a difference."
Buchnevich completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal at 18:39 to make it 5-3. Chris Kreider also scored an empty-net goal at 19:38 for the 6-3 final.
"We're certainly moving in the right direction," Quinn said. "We had our hands full today. We're going to have our hands full again tomorrow. But it's really good to see that we've put ourselves in this position to be playing meaningful hockey."
NOTES: Panarin has a goal in three straight games and has scored 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in 19 games since returning to the lineup March 13 after missing nine games while on a leave of absence. He has scored at least three points in eight of his 16 home games this season. … The Rangers scored three goals in the first period for the second consecutive game. It's the first time they've done that since Jan. 22-23, 2002. … Bastian had an assist, four penalty minutes and four hits in 11:11 of ice time in his first game since March 18. He missed 15 with a lower-body injury.