NEW YORK (AP) – Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin have each scored twice and Alexandar Georgiev stopped 23 shots for his fifth career shutout, leading the New York Rangers to a 5-0 win over the Islanders on Saturday night.
Kaapo Kakko also scored as the Rangers rebounded for their first win two nights after being shut out 4-0 by the Islanders in the season opener.
“Today was a much better defensive game for us,” said Georgiev. “The score dictated a lot of the game because we were in the lead from the start. We managed to play really smart hockey, let the odds come our way and not rush anything.
Ilya Sorokin made 27 saves in his NHL debut for the Islanders, starting after Semyon Varlamov was hit near the throat by a Cal Clutterbuck shot during warm-ups. Cory Schneider, who signed a one-year contract with the Islanders this month, has dressed up as a backup.
“We got him out of the water,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said of Sorokin. “We put him in a difficult situation. … Turnovers, bad games, bad execution, we were rotten today.
The Islanders went 0-4 on the power play and Mathew Barzal was called up for three minor penalties.
Buchnevich opened the scoring 2:12 from the start of the game after Mika Zibanejad stole the puck from Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson off the Islanders bench. It was the Rangers’ first goal of the season.
Panarin converted a breakaway to double the Rangers advantage in the first period with 7:14 to go. Brendan Smith blocked a shot in the defensive zone, then delivered a stretching pass in his season debut to bring out the new alternate captain.
“The right words were said in the locker room and it was a good lesson for all of us,” Panarin said of Thursday’s loss. “We changed some things in our game and we were happy with the result.”
Buchnevich added his second of the contest with a sharp-angled wrist from the left face-off point at 5:57 of the second. Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield struggled to control a rolling puck after being tied up with an official.
“He’s working hard, he wants to get better, he’s coachable, he’s really growing,” Rangers coach David Quinn said of Buchnevich. “I’m so happy for him that he’s being statistically rewarded, but he does all these other things that he didn’t do two years ago. It’s just fun to watch people grow up.
Phillip Di Giuseppe prepared Kakko with 4:36 left in the middle of the period to bring the score to 4-0. Dobson struggled to get out of the Islanders’ defensive zone and the Rangers took advantage of the roll. Filip Chytil also contributed to the play.
Panarin capped the Rangers seventh power-play score with 4:04 left on an Adam Fox assist. Buchnevich got an assist for his third point of the game.
“I think it’s just a really bad outing,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “It’s not representative of how we want to play. They returned a few too many pucks, took too many penalties, they played a much better game than us.
Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock caught a high puck in the first period. He immediately left the mirror and headed for the locker room. He came back to start the middle frame and totaled 21:23 of ice time.
Rangers D Tony DeAngelo was ruled out after being called out for holding in the third period of the season opener and then compounded the error with an unsportsmanlike penalty. He only played one minute the rest of the game. DeAngelo was sacked several times last season for disciplinary reasons.
Alexis Lafrenière, selected by the Rangers with the first overall pick in the NHL Draft, was raised to the second row to skate on the right side with LW Panarin and C Ryan Strome. Kakko, the second overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, has been moved to third row along with Di Giuseppe and Chytil.
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