Artemi Panarin’s production was quiet this season until Saturday night when he factored in every goal for the New York Rangers.
New York’s production at home has featured plenty of good looks but no goals and the Rangers attempt to score for the first time on home ice Monday night when they host the Minnesota Wild.
The Rangers are 3-4-0 with each win coming on the road.
Panarin had mustered only two assists this season until his four-point night helped the Rangers overcome an early two-goal deficit in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. The win snapped a three-game losing streak and occurred two nights after Mika Zibanejad fanned on a shot that led to a 2-1 overtime loss in Toronto.
Panarin set up Zibanejad’s power-play goal in the first period and assisted on tallies by J.T. Miller and Matthew Robertson in the opening 4:11 of the third. He finally notched his elusive first goal 5:51 into the period on a setup by Zibanejad.
“That feels like (my) first goal in life,” Panarin said. “I was so happy. Mika made an unbelievable pass for me. I missed five before and then finally.”
Panarin notched his first four-point night since Oct. 17, 2024, at Detroit after failing to score on his first 13 shots on goal and it occurred on a night when the Rangers had a season-low 22 shots on goal.
“It would be really easy just to kind of feel sorry for ourselves for the past few games,” said Zibanejad, whose 27 shots on goal were second in the NHL entering Sunday. “And I think I’ve said this multiple times, (it would be bad) to start cheating the game, start sacrificing some defense to get some more offense and whatnot.”
The Rangers allowed only six goals in home losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oilers. New York’s 180-minute scoreless streak to start a season on home ice is the longest in NHL history amongst current teams and 7:19 shy of the NHL’s all-time mark behind the defunct Pittsburgh Pirates in 1928.
Continuing a five-game road trip, Minnesota will attempt to stop a three-game losing streak and get more shots on net. The Wild had 41 shots on goal in their 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday but were outshot 66-30 in losses in a back-to-back set against the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored the only goal in Saturday’s 2-1 overtime loss at Philadelphia a night after Friday’s 5-1 defeat was deemed unacceptable by coach John Hynes. After Tarasenko tallied 1:55 into the second period, the Wild allowed the tying goal with 12:50 left and lost on a goal by Noah Cates 2:37 into the extra period.
“If you don’t compete at a high level night in, night out, you don’t have a chance to win — that was (Friday),” Hynes said. “I felt like (Saturday), we did that. But there’s another one — you can’t beat yourself. And I think puck decisions at key points in the arena at key points in the game — one of them cost us the tying goal.”
The Wild are also hoping to avoid a third straight quiet showing from star forward Kirill Kaprizov. He had four goals and five assists in his first four games but was held to a combined three shots on goal and no points in Washington and Philadelphia.
The Rangers are 5-0-1 in the past six meetings.
