Saturday, January 22, 2022 07:00 PM (ET)

Chris Kreider's hat trick powers Rangers past Coyotes

Field Level Media
Jan 22, 2022

Chris Kreider scored twice during a four-goal second period and recorded his fifth career hat trick midway through the third as the New York Rangers recovered from a sluggish start and rallied for a 7-3 victory over the visiting Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.

The Rangers pulled off their second straight comeback on home ice after rallying for a 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday.

After arriving home from Friday's 6-3 loss in Carolina at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday, the Rangers were outshot 16-4 in the first period and faced a 3-1 gap seven minutes into the second period before storming back with four goals in the final 8 1/2 minutes of the period as coach Gerard Gallant put Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin together on the top line.

Kreider scored for the fifth straight game and increased his season total to 29 goals to tie Alex Ovechkin for the league lead. Kreider scored his second career shorthanded goal to start the comeback, and got his fifth hat trick of the season backhanding a rebound into the net.

Julian Gauthier netted the tying goal, and Panarin scored the tiebreaking goal on a power play as the Rangers won for the fifth time in their last seven games.

Jacob Trouba collected two goals and an assist, and Zibanejad collected three assists.

New York's Igor Shesterkin survived a shaky opening 20 minutes and made 26 saves.

Liam O'Brien and Andrew Ladd scored in the first for the Coyotes, and Clayton Keller tallied early in the second as they dropped their second straight.

Arizona rookie goalie Karel Vejmelka allowed six goals on 20 shots before being pulled after Trouba's second goal.

O'Brien's tap-in opened the scoring 2:29 in, but Trouba tied it with a wrist shot from the left point 46 seconds later.

Ladd made it 2-1 with a wrist shot over Shesterkin's left shoulder with about 13 minutes remaining, and Keller scored his 15th goal when his shot trickled past Shesterkin 7:01 into the second.

The Rangers had seven shots on goal until their barrage, which started when Kreider got a cross-ice pass from Zibanejad and lifted a shot over Vejmelka.

Gauthier jammed in his own rebound with 4:34 left, and a little over a minute later, Panarin blasted a wrister from the left circle into the net.

Kreider made it 5-3 with 1:18 remaining when he lifted a shot from the doorstep into the net after Zibanejad's cross-ice pass banked off an Arizona defender.

--Field Level Media

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