On the national stage of the outdoor Winter Classic, the New York Rangers produced one of their best showings of an inconsistent season.
The Rangers could use some similar performances on home ice, and their next chance to start improving their record in front of their fans comes Monday when they host the Utah Mammoth.
New York is playing its first home game since rallying for a 5-4 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 20. The Rangers went 2-3-1 on a six-game trip culminating in Friday’s 5-1 win in Miami over the Florida Panthers.
“We’re in the middle of an Eastern Conference where there’s only a handful of points that separate most of the teams, and so every point is so vitally important as far as trying to stay in the playoff race,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
The Rangers scored 12 goals in their two wins on the trip and were held to six goals in the other games.
Mika Zibanejad netted a hat trick against the Panthers as part of his fourth career five-point game. Artemi Panarin collected two goals and an assist as the Rangers improved to 5-0-0 this season when he gets at least three points.
“I’m hoping this could be the start of something good for us,” Zibanejad said. “A fresh start.”
Each of Panarin’s three-point showings came on the road where the Rangers are 15-8-2, compared to 5-10-3 at home.
Panarin and Zibanejad produced their biggest games while J.T. Miller sat for the sixth straight outing due to a shoulder injury. He sustained the injury on a hit from Nick Seeler in New York’s most recent home game and was in a non-contact jersey during practice on Sunday.
New York is 3-2-2 in its past seven home games since a listless 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 29, but each of those wins required overtime or a shootout.
The Mammoth, who earned a 3-2 home win over the Rangers on Nov. 22, are 8-12-0 in their past 20 games. Opponents held them below two goals in four of the past eight games.
The latest instance occurred Saturday afternoon when the Mammoth followed up Thursday’s 7-2 road win over the New York Islanders with a 4-1 loss at the New Jersey Devils.
“We got to try to get on a run here,” Utah defenseman Sean Durzi said. “Can’t have one good game and then one bad game, (then) one good game. We got to string together a lot of good ones.”
The Mammoth were two points back of the Western Conference wild-card spots entering Sunday’s action.
On Saturday, they allowed two goals in a span of 1:51 in the first period and two more in a span of 90 seconds in the second period. The Mammoth totaled 31 shots on goal but only Michael Carcone was able to score, while the trio of Dylan Guenther, Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz had no points after combining for 10 on Thursday.
“Puck management early in the game cost us a lot,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think it’s a game with a tight gap and we try to play in front of them, and we paid for it. Then when we were trailing, they played good defense and we had good opportunities, but we could not bury it.”
