Miller late goal lifts Rangers past Kraken

NEW YORK -- K'Andre Miller scored at 19:26 of the third period and Igor Shesterkin made 40 saves in the New York Rangers' 3-2 win against the Seattle Kraken at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Miller gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead with a wrist shot from above the right circle 36 seconds after Yanni Gourde scored a 6-on-4 power-play goal for the Kraken to tie it 2-2.
Mika Zibanejad won the face-off in the right circle back to Miller and the shooting lane opened when Chris Kreider collided with Riley Sheahan, knocking the Kraken forward to the ice.
"[Mika] has been really good on the draw for us this year so I kind of had a feeling it was going to come right back to me; [Kreider] obviously helping with picking a guy a little bit," Miller said. "Just getting the puck on net and good things happen.
"Not bringing our best game tonight, just finding a way to get two points is the biggest thing. We can definitely use this game to learn off of and improve from."

Zibanejad scored a power-play goal and had an assist on Alexis Lafreniere's goal to give him points in three straight games (two goals, three assists) and in 15 of 18 (12 goals, 14 assists) since Dec. 15.
The Rangers (29-13-4), who had lost two in a row, were outshot 42-24.
"I think it was awful," Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "Love the win. Competitiveness, quite a bit, disappointing.
"They play hard, they send four lines at you and I'm not disrespecting their team. I'm talking about my team and we just weren't hard enough."
Jared McCann scored his team-leading 18th goal for the Kraken (14-26-4) and Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves, including stopping Miller on a breakaway at 13:45 of the third period.
"There's not much you can say about it, that wasn't a breakdown or anything like that, it was just a face-off win with a pick and they scored," Seattle captain Mark Giordano said of Miller's goal. "We played pretty hard and I thought fought right to the end. It [stinks] the way we lost, there's no other way to put it."
Shesterkin stopped all 14 shots he faced in the first period, 10 of 11 in the second and 16 of 17 in the third.
"Excellent," Gallant said. "He gave us a chance to win and that's what he does."
Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said he didn't want to dissect what happened on Miller's game-winning goal because it would take away from his team's strong performance.
The plus-18 shot differential is the Kraken's widest this season.
"When we take care of the puck and manage it well and make sure we're not giving away anything easily, especially off of the rush, we become difficult to play against," Hakstol said. "That's the way we played."

Zibanejad gave New York a 1-0 lead at 11:46 of the first period.
He moved the puck left to right across the zone to Artemi Panarin, who delivered it back to Zibanejad for a short-side one-timer from the left circle that beat Grubauer for his 17th goal.
"When you get passes like that you just want to make sure you hit the net and I've been fortunate enough to do that," Zibanejad said. "That gives you confidence to shoot more and put myself in a position to shoot."
Lafreniere made it 2-0 at 4:23 of the second period, scoring off the rebound of Zibanejad's one-timer from the left circle that hit the post and caromed in front. Grubauer was outside the left post so Lafreniere had an easy tap-in once he gained position on Jeremy Lauzon.
The Kraken cut the Rangers lead to 2-1 on McCann's goal off a 3-on-2 rush with Jordan Eberle and Marcus Johansson at 7:17.

Gourde made it 2-2 with his short-side one-timer from below the face-off dot in the right circle at 18:52 of the third.
"This group is growing together," Hakstol said. "I say it every day, we've still got a ways to go, but the signs and the results of what we're doing are improving. Today, we played like a pretty tight hockey team. We had some injury issues before the game, during the game, and guys did step forward and continue working. We're still working toward exactly who we want to be, but we played a pretty good hockey game, pretty tight."
NOTES: Kraken forward Karson Kuhlman left the game after sustaining an upper-body injury when he hit Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek at 16:42 of the first period. Hakstol did not have an update on his condition. … Seattle forward Calle Jarnkrok was scratched with an upper-body injury after skating in pregame warmups. Hakstol said Jarnkrok's injury goes back to previous games and it was determined after warmups he couldn't play. He didn't have a further update. … The Rangers have an NHL-high 14 one-goal wins. They're 14-4-4 in games decided by one goal. … Shesterkin is 9-0-0 when making 40 or more saves in his career. … Lafreniere played in his 100th NHL game.