Zibanejad, Rangers recover, top Blackhawks in OT for 4th straight win

CHICAGO -- Mika Zibanejad scored at 2:37 of overtime, and the New York Rangers recovered for a 4-3 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Friday.

Zibanejad scored on a wrist shot from the right circle on a pass from Chris Kreider after Jason Dickinson tied it 3-3 for Chicago with 1:02 left in the third period with goalie Petr Mrazek pulled for the extra skater. New York led 3-1 entering the third.

“We got a 3-on-2, ‘Kreids’ makes an unbelievable play, freezes the goalie and the defender,” Zibanejad said. “Try to get it on net and it went in, so I was relieved. I thought we did an OK job in the first after they got the lead. They work hard, give them credit. They’re fast. There’s execution and maybe slow decision-making at times that put us in trouble. It’s not a great performance, but at the end of the day, it’s easy to look at it and demand more from ourselves when we get the two points and move on.”

Kreider had a goal and an assist, Alexis Lafrenière scored, and Adam Fox had two assists for the Rangers (33-16-3), who won their fourth straight game. Igor Shesterkin made 28 saves in his first start since Jan. 26.

Shesterkin sat for three straight games in favor of Jonathan Quick.

“Igor looked good,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “If you look at the goals, there’s not a lot he can do on them.”

Nick Foligno and Alex Vlasic scored, and Mrazek made 31 saves for the Blackhawks (14-35-3), who have lost six in a row.

“We’re one step closer to our result that we want, but I think that resiliency’s a great word,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “That describes our group. That’s a pretty talented group we were playing against, and we wanted to play our game plan, and I think for the most part, we stuck to it.

“That consistency was good for us in the third period and obviously we played desperate, pulled the goalie and had a goal. But I think the guys, it’s just their work ethic. We’ve been kind of on this for maybe over a month now that I’ve been very happy with the work ethic. We haven’t gotten the results most nights. But we’re inching closer every time.”

Vlasic gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 2:39 of the first period on a wrist shot, picking up the puck near the top of the left circle after it deflected off the stick of Rangers forward Will Cuylle.

“I think I’ve been trying to work on my shot quite a bit this year,” Vlasic said. “I feel like I’ve gotten quite a few chances that I haven’t been able to capitalize on, and that’s an area in the second half here that I’m trying to get a little better at and contribute offensively.”

Lafreniere tied it 1-1 at 4:49, taking a pass in the right circle from K'Andre Miller and putting a one-timer past Mrazek.

Kreider gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 6:16 when he tipped in a pass from Fox while standing off the crease. The Blackhawks were caught short in their own zone because defenseman Isaak Phillips was pushing forward Boris Katchouk to the bench after Katchouk had a skate blade break while blocking a shot.

Jonny Brodzinski extended it to 3-1 at 9:02 of the second period, tapping in the rebound of Kaapo Kakko’s shot after Mrazek lost control of the puck.

“I think we had our chances to put a couple in the net,” said Brodzinski, who tied an NHL career high with his fourth goal of the season. “But for the most part, I think it was just us trying to make cute plays.”

Foligno cut it to 3-2 at 13:37 of the third period, scoring from in front on the rebound of Philipp Kurashev’s shot.

Dickinson tied it 3-3 at 18:58, scoring on a tip-in of a shot by Seth Jones from the right point.

“We got two points,” Laviolette said. “We’re in the business of winning, so we’ll take the points and go home. Coming back off the [All-Star] break and playing the games the way we did, travel, get here, it was obviously not a clean night for us. We’ll address those things after the day off and get ready for the next one.

“I would imagine nobody’s really happy with the way we played. I’m pretty honest. If I think we played all right and lost, I’ll let you know that. It was not one of our better efforts. We walk away with the two points. The win’s in the column. We’ll fix some things, and we’ll be better next game.”

NOTES: Zibanejad scored his eighth overtime goal with the Rangers and surpassed Cecil Dillon, Butch Keeling and Brian Leetch for the most in franchise history. … Fox became the sixth player in Rangers history to have 30 assists in each of his first five seasons with the franchise, joining Mark Messier (six), Phil Goyette (six), Artemi Panarin (five), Reijo Ruotsalainen (five) and Phil Esposito (five).