By WILL GRAVES
PITTSBURGH — Artemi Panarin had two goals and three assists, and the New York Rangers zoomed past the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 7-4 win on Saturday.
Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller each had a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who have won four of five to create a sliver of space between themselves and Carolina in the race for first in the Metropolitan Division. Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko also scored.
Jonathan Quick made 34 saves to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts.
Bryan Rust scored his 20th goal of the season for the Penguins. John Ludvig, Lars Eller and Valtteri Puustinen also scored.
Tristan Jarry stopped 17 shots before he was pulled after Miller’s eighth goal of the season gave the Rangers a 6-3 lead 4:41 into the third.
New York is sprinting toward the playoffs behind Panarin, who has seven goals and 17 assists over his last 14 games. His three assists against the Penguins boosted his career total to 500. He has 93 points on the season to become the first player in Rangers history to record at least 90 points three years in a row.
The Penguins have dropped eight of 10. They are in danger of missing the playoffs for a second straight season after running off 16 consecutive postseason berths between 2007-22.
Pittsburgh was hoping that a win over lowly San Jose on Thursday would provide a boost. Instead, the Penguins spent most of the game trying and failing to match New York’s impressive offensive attack.
Kakko and Fox scored 26 seconds apart in the first period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Fox’s goal symbolized the quality scoring chances in deep that New York created with regularity. He took a feed from Panarin in the right circle and skated freely to the front of the net before flipping a backhand by Jarry.
Panarin’s first goal in the later stages of the first came off a brilliant saucer pass from Vincent Trochek, who flipped the puck over a diving Ryan Graves and right to Panarin’s stick. Panarin redirected the pass past Jarry to make it 3-2.
Pittsburgh tied it at 3 just past the game’s midway point, on a power-play goal by Eller off a slick feed by Michael Bunting.
New York took control for good late in the second when Panarin and Zibanejad scored power-play goals just over a minute apart. Panarin pounced on a rebound for his 21st of the season, and Zibanejad found himself all alone right in front of Jarry at the end of a tic-tac-toe sequence to push it to 5-3.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Meet the rival New York Islanders on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Penguins: Host Detroit on Sunday.
