New Headline: Rangers' Loss Highlights Panarin's Decline as Kings Battle for Victory
Brad Penner-Imagn Images Artemi Panarin’s return to Madison Square Garden on Monday night was a happy one for him and his new teammates with the Los Angeles Kings – and a nightmare for his old club, the New York Rangers. The Breadman had just one assist, but the Kings rolled to a 4-1 victory that ended the Rangers’ four-game winning streak and gave LA a 3-1-1 record on its five-game road trip. Darcy Kuemper improved to 11-4-0 against the Rangers by making 21 saves.
Alex Laferriere had a goal and two assists, defenseman Mikey Anderson chipped in a goal and an assist, and Quinton Byfield had two assists for Los Angeles (28-24-15, 71 points), which pulled even in points with the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card in the Western Conference. Brad Penner-Imagn Images The speed and skill the Rangers showed while going 4-0-0 last week to move within two wins of NHL . 500 were rarely in evidence.
The line of First Star of the Week Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibanejad and Gabe Perreault was almost invisible, especially in the first two periods, and no other unit stepped up. The Kings, who entered the game tied with the New Jersey for 28th in goals with 176, outshot the Rangers 16-3 in the second period, when they scored twice and had a 30-7 margin in shot attempts. Panarin joked before the game that he hoped longtime teammate Igor Shesterkin had a bad night in goal.
Shesterkin was solid — but not up to his level of play in Saturday’s 4-2 road win against the Minnesota Wild, when he made a season-high 46 saves and was the only reason the Rangers weren’t run out of the building. He finished with 22 saves. The Blueshirts trailed 3-0 after two periods but came out gunning in the third and got on the board when Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal at 2:29.
They controlled play the rest of the way, holding the Kings without a shot for the first 17:15, but couldn’t score again and dropped to 6-2-2 since the Olympic break. All love for Bread in New York 💙 Artemi Panarin's back at @TheGarden for the first time after spending seven seasons with the Rangers. pic.
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