Jonathan Quick made 20 saves and the New York Rangers scored twice in the final eight minutes of the second period for a 3-1 victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Monday night.
The Rangers won their second straight after following up their 10-game winning streak with three losses in four games and pushed their lead in the Metropolitan Division to four points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, whom they visit Tuesday.
Quick picked up his 389th career win to tie Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek for 15th on the all-time list. He also moved within two of tying Ryan Miller for the most wins by an American-born goalie.
Mika Zibanejad reached 20 goals for the seventh straight season and scored his first five-on-five goal since Dec. 23. Erik Gustafsson also scored as the Rangers beat the Devils for the third time this season.
Vincent Trocheck added an empty-net goal with 73 seconds left.
Simon Nemec scored late in the third as New Jersey lost for the ninth time in 13 games. The Devils were unable to score on a five-minute power play early in the third after Matt Rempe elbowed Jonas Siegenthaler in the face and drew a game misconduct.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 23 saves in his debut for the Devils and took his 10th straight loss.
With 7:35 left in the second, New York finally broke through thanks to a misplay by the Devils behind the net.
Curtis Lazar and Siegenthaler whiffed on a clearing attempt in the left corner and the puck skipped over to Chris Kreider. Kreider spotted Zibanejad cutting through the slot and made a pass from behind the net that was converted into a backhander over Kahkonen.
The Rangers took a 2-0 lead with 52 seconds left when New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes could not clear and New York cycled it around. Gustafsson scored his sixth goal when his blast from the left point sailed through traffic and past Kahkonen, who was screened in front by Rempe.
Quick was hardly tested during the five-minute power play and the Devils finally scored when Nemec’s shot from near the blue line sailed by Quick with 2:34 left.
–Field Level Media
