NEW YORK (AP) — Jack Hughes and Michael McLeod scored in the second period, Vitek Vanecek stopped 35 shots and the surging New Jersey Devils rallied from an early two-goal deficit to beat the New York Rangers 5-3 on Monday night.
Yegor Sharangovich had two goals and Tomas Tatar also scored to help the first-place Devils win their third straight since having their 13-game winning streak snapped last week. New Jersey has won 10 straight road games and has only one loss since starting the season 3-3-0.
The Rangers raced to a 2-0 lead just three minutes into the contest but the Devils scored twice to tie it later in the first period to tie it and then scored twice in the second period to take the lead.
“We stayed with our game. There was a calmness on the bench,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said of his team’s early deficit. “All I said on the bench was ‘let’s get the next goal and we’ll be back in the game.’”
Vanecek improved to 11-2-0 as scattered chants of “Let’s Go Devils” were heard at Madison Square Garden.
The Devils have made the playoffs only once — in 2018 — since beating the Rangers in six games in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals.
“It was great to hear the fans here on our side,” Devils forward Miles Wood said. “We can’t thank them enough.”
Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck scored and Chris Kreider had two assists for the Rangers, who fell to 4-5-3 at home. Igor Shesterkin had 33 saves.
New York also lost its second straight at home in a disheartening fashion. The Rangers squandered a 3-0 third-period lead against Edmonton on Saturday to lose 4-3. Last season, they won 27 of 41 games at the Garden.
“When one thing goes wrong it starts to snowball on us,” Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren said. ”We keep saying we have to play a full 60. You can’t keep talking about it, you have to go out and do it.”
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant credited the young and hungry Devils with playing a superior game.
“They put lots of offense at you, they play fast and they showed that,” Gallant said. “Tonight they were the better team.”
Tatar narrowed the deficit to 2-1 at 7:31 of the first with a nifty high backhand shot past Shesterkin for his sixth of the season. Jesper Bratt had an assist on the play, giving him a point in 18 for the Devils’ 23 games this season.
Sharangovich tied it with an unassisted goal with 6:35 left in the first.
Hughes put the Devils ahead at 5:44 of the second after he gained a stride on Lindgren before sliding the puck past Shesterkin for his 12th of the season and fourth in the last two games.
McLeod made it 4-2 at 9:40 with his third goal after Wood hit the crossbar behind Shesterkin.
“I have to play better,” said , who was also in goal for Saturday’s meltdown against Edmonton and has lost three of his last five games.
It was the fourth time in their last six games the Devils scored at least four times and New Jersey improved to 9-0-0 when the 21-year-old Hughes — the top overall pick by the Devils in the 2019 draft — has a goal.
Trocheck scored his eighth goal on the power play for the Rangers with 6:42 left in the third to pull within one, but Sharangovich added an empty-netter with 16 seconds remaining to seal the win.
The Devils improved a franchise-best 13-1-0 in November and an NHL-best 16-0-0 when leading after two periods.
“It’s fun playing here,” Hischier said. “It feels great to beat the Rangers,″
Panarin scored 1:20 into the game to end a personal 12-game goal-scoring drought with his sixth of the season and first since Oct. 30 at Arizona.
Zibanejad made it 2-0 at 3:01 with his team-best 11th of the season.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host Nashville on Thursday night.
Rangers: At Ottawa on Wednesday night.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/AP_Sports
Allan Kreda, The Associated Press
