Jaroslav Halak came into Saturday night on a six-game personal win streak, while the Rangers as a team had won four in a row. Unfortunately, Vitali Kravtsov was scratched for Jake Leschyshyn. Fortunately, those winning streaks would continue despite being outplayed for most of the game.
Both offenses came flying out of the gates, but Halak and Frederick Anderson were equal to the tests, at least for the first 15 minutes. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Mika Zibanejad scored a powerplay goal. Artemiy Panarin took a speculative shot that Chris Kreider got his stick on.