The New York Rangers won their preseason game against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night — but lost star forward Artemi Panarin to a lower-body injury.
The 5-4 victory improved their record to 4-1-0. In the bigger picture, though, losing Panarin for the second time in as many preseason games is the bigger deal.
Panarin played only four shifts in the first period before heading to the dressing room; he was ruled out at the start of the second period. Panarin exited the game against the New York Islanders last Tuesday in the third period, also with a lower-body injury, although he missed only one day of practice.
Coach Peter Laviolette said postgame that Panarin is being evaluated, but “there’s always a concern when a player leaves early.”
Five different Rangers scored Tuesday, one night after a 3-1 loss to the Devils in New Jersey. Kaapo Kakko, Adam Edstrom, Victor Mancini, Connor Mackey and Vincent Trocheck scored for New York. Zac Jones, Brennan Othmann and Bo Groulx each had two assists.
Igor Shesterkin played the first two periods in goal for the Rangers. He allowed two goals on 18 shots. Dylan Garand finished up between the pipes, allowing two goals on 16 shots.
Kevin Labanc scored twice for the Devils, whose varsity roster is in Prague for the season-opening NHL Global Series against the Buffalo Sabres on Friday and Saturday.
New York Rangers 5 – New Jersey Devils 4
Though the Rangers allowed five of the first seven shots on goal to start the game, they opened the scoring at 6:41 of the first period. Taking advantage of a Labanc turnover in the Devils zone, Jones quickly sent a long shot toward the net where Kakko deflected it past Isaac Poulter to make it 1-0 Rangers.
The goal was Kakko’s first in three preseason games.
The lead was short-lived, though. Jakub Zboril, a 2015 first-round pick by the Boston Bruins who signed with the Devils during the offseason, buried his own rebound 50 seconds after Kakko’s goal to tie it 1-1. Shesterkin made a lunging right-pad save on the defenseman’s original shot, but left a big rebound in the slot. Zboril cleaned up the rebound when Mackey failed to clear both the puck and the shooter following up his own shot.
The teams again traded goals early in the second period before the Rangers scored twice late in the stanza to carry a 4-2 lead into the second intermission.
Edstrom restored New York’s lead at 5:25 when he banged in his own rebound from in close. The goal was his third in four preseason games.
The Devils answered right back, tying the game 2-2 at 9:04 when Labanc, the former San Jose Sharks forward and Staten Island native, put a rebound past Shesterkin.
But then two Rangers defensemen looking to crack the opening-night roster with Ryan Lindgren injured each scored to push New York’s lead to two. Mancini made it 3-2 at 17:01 when he danced around a defender before wiring a shot far side past Poulter. The goal was his second of the preseason.
Just 28 seconds later, Mackey rifled a shot short side off the post and in for his first preseason goal, upping the lead to 4-2.
Trocheck made it 5-2 at 3:19 of the third period, bursting into the offensive zone, weaving past Devils defenders and zipping a shot past goalie Tyler Brennan for his first preseason tally.
Garand replaced Shesterkin to start the third and surrendered Labanc’s second goal of the game. The veteran forward ,who’s in Devils camp on a PTO, roofed a shot far side from the left dot at 9:24 with Matt Rempe in the penalty box. The power-play goal cut the Rangers’ lead to 5-3.
The 22-year-old goalie made several pretty saves, including a lightning-quick glove stop to deny Labanc the hat trick late in the third. But Brian Halonen scored a 6-on-5 goal from the left circle for New Jersey with 37 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.
The Rangers return to action Friday night at UBS Arena, when they close out their preseason schedule against the Islanders.
