Blackhawks edge Rangers for 1st win under Sorensen, end 5-game skid

NEW YORK -- The Chicago Blackhawks won for the first time under interim coach Anders Sorensen when they defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

Sorensen was named Blackhawks coach Dec. 5, replacing the fired Luke Richardson. Chicago lost Sorensen’s debut, 4-2 to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday and had lost five straight in regulation.

“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Sorensen said. “I thought even for group here, the losing stretch here was getting long, and I thought the guys battled hard.”

Taylor Hall had the game-winning goal and an assist, Tyler Bertuzzi scored, and Arvid Soderblom made 29 saves for the Blackhawks (9-17-2).

“It’s huge. It’s been five games since we’ve won,” said Hall, who broke a 1-1 tie at 6:16 of the second period. “Anders gets a win under his belt, same with ‘Sody.’ Sody’s played really well for us this year. Those are important things to do at start of road trip.”

Will Cuylle scored, and Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves for the Rangers (14-12-1), who are 2-8-0 in their past 10 games.

“I don’t know what to say anymore,” forward Artemi Panarin said. “But we had tons of chances again, we should score, but we don’t. Chances don’t win the games, we know that.

“We have to score, hopefully again. I feel like I say that 100 times already, hopefully next game.”

New York outshot Chicago 14-9 in the first period, but then were outshot 23-16 over the final two periods.

“I believe the second and third period, the effort dipped from where it was in in the first period and the execution was worse,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said.

“The execution was off all night. Could be fatigue, could be mental, could be anything, regardless, it’s unacceptable. We have to be better than that, but we are not going to win hockey games if we can’t execute.”

Soderblom was starting in place of Petr Mrazek, who was placed on injured reserve Sunday with a groin injury sustained in the loss to the Jets.

It was his second win of the season for the Swedish-born goalie (2-6-1) and his first since Nov. 9 against the Anaheim Ducks.

“That was so much fun, the most fun I’ve had in a while,” Soderblom said. “It was fun to play here, kind of a childhood dream, watching (former Rangers goalie Henrik) Lundquvist growing up, so it was a cool feeling stepping on that ice and playing as well as we did.”

Perhaps Soderblom’s biggest save came in the final seconds when the Rangers were putting on the pressure with an extra skater. Chris Kreider corralled a loose puck and fired it at Soderblom, who was able to stop it. He said after the game he never saw the shot.

“It’s such fast game, you don’t even know what’s going on, you just try to be in the way of the puck,” Soderblom said.

With the score tied 1-1 after the first period, Hall scored when he finished a 2-on-1 rush with Connor Bedard.

It was Hall’s first goal since he had a hat trick against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 27.

“Those (2-on-1 rush) are rare, it’s nice when you get something like that,” Bedard said.

Bertuzzi gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 8:10 of the first period when he took a cross-ice pass from Hall and wristed it over a sprawling Shesterkin. It was Bertuzzi’s sixth goal of the season and first since Nov. 7.

It was the first game for Shesterkin since signing an 8-year, $92 million contract with the Rangers on Saturday. He missed a 7-5 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Sunday for the birth of his daughter.

New York tied it 1-1 with 43 seconds left in the first period on a short-handed goal from Cuylle, who banged home a rebound of a Sam Carrick shot for his 10th goal of the season.

“Every game is frustrating, especially right now,” Cuylle said. “We need to win games and we’re not doing that. It’s frustrating today, it will be frustrating when we wake up tomorrow.

“Our execution and speed wasn’t really there, we needed to keep it simple at times and we are trying to do too much.”

The Blackhawks have two more games in the New York area, playing at the New York Islanders on Thursday and at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

“We need to get a winning feeling consistently,” Hall said, “One win’s not good enough. We need to stick together and get two, three, four wins. I think you’re going to see a lot more guys play with confidence, play on their toes and a bit more smiles out there.”

NOTES: The Blackhawks were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and haven’t allowed a power-play goal in their past six games (15-for-15). … Since Nov. 1, the Blackhawks are 42-for-48 on the penalty kill (87.5 percent), which ranks first in the NHL. … Defenseman Kevin Korchinski made his season debut for Chicago and had two shots on goal in 16:54 of ice time. … Cuylle established a new NHL career high with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists), including his first career short-handed goal. … The Rangers had won three in a row and seven of their past eight against the Blackhawks before Monday.