Recap: Ducks Can't Slow Rangers Top Line in 6-4 Loss to New York

The New York Rangers broke a second-period 2-2 tie with three consecutive goals, earning a 6-4 victory over the Ducks tonight at Madison Square Garden.
DUCKS STREAM |NHL GAMECENTER | PHOTO GALLERY

The loss dropped Anaheim to 1-2-0 on the season and 0-2-0 to start a five-game eastern road trip. The Ducks will play the second half of the club's first back-to-back of the season tomorrow at New Jersey.
Frank Vatrano, Trevor Zegras, Max Comtois and Derek Grant scored for Anaheim. Pavol Regenda recorded his first career NHL point with two assists.

Troy Terry also tallied two assists, becoming the first player in Ducks history with six points in the first three games of a season.
Max Jones, Dmitry Kulikov and Kevin Shattenkirk each registered an assist.
John Gibson made 29 saves in his third start of the season and was replaced by Anthony Stolarz to begin the third period for the second straight game. Stolarz stopped 8-of-9 shots in the third.
Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin led New York with four points apiece. Zibanejad has scored in each of his last five games against the Ducks and has 21 points in 16 career matchups.
Vincent Trocheck, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin made 18 saves for his third win of the season.
The teams traded early close calls on either end about five minutes into the action. Moments after Shesterkin shut down a Max Jones chance in tight, Gibson denied Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider in transition.

New York went ahead shortly thereafter on a tic-tac-toe passing play for a power-play goal. Just as the Rangers came across the blue line, Panarin found Zibanejad with a cross-seam pass in the left circle. Zibanejad then quickly zipped it to Trocheck in front of the net, who tapped it to give the Rangers the early lead.
Anaheim conceded three power-play goals for the second time in three games after only doing so twice in the 2021-22 campaign.
Trocheck has five points in four games to start the season, his first as a Ranger after signing a seven-year contract as a free agent in July.
Gibson kept it a one-goal game temporarily with a couple of point-blank saves minutes later, highlighted by a breakaway denial of Panarin after Shesterkin had sprung the Rangers' leading scorer with a stretch pass following an Anaheim dump-in.
The Ducks would take a penalty in the subsequent scramble in their defensive zone though and once again the Rangers would make them pay, this time with Panarin setting up Zibanejad on the backdoor.
Panarin has seven points in his last two games against Anaheim.
The Ducks got back in the game on a laser of a shot by Vatrano, a milestone marker in more ways than one. Playing his first game back in New York after signing with Anaheim this offseason, Vatrano tracked down an area pass by Lundestrom, playing catch with Regenda before stepping in and burying a wrister over Shesterkin's shoulder from just off the wall.

The primary assist marked the first career point for Regenda in his third NHL game.
Vatrano came to New York in March as a trade deadline acquisition, scoring 13 points in 22 games before adding another 13 points in 20 playoff contests.
The Ducks pulled even in the opening minutes of the second period on a pretty passing play of their own, courtesy of two new linemates. Terry carried the puck through the neutral zone before sliding a pass to Zegras, who got behind the Rangers defense sprinting down left wing and beat Shesterkin with a sudden forehand shot through the five-hole to tie the game at two.

Terry has points in three straight games (3-2=5) to open the season. Kulikov grabbed the secondary assist for his first point as a Duck.
The tie would be short-lived though as New York reclaimed the lead on a fortunate bounce for the home side. Zibanejad fired a shot from the outside that Gibson handled with the blocker, but the rebound carromed off Kakko in front and trickled through the Anaheim netminder, giving the Rangers a 3-2 lead.
Gibson made a couple of terrific saves on a late second period power play for the Rangers in an attempt to hit the second intermission down just a goal, including a highlight-reel glove hand denial of Trocheck and a left-to-right slide to abosrb a Zibanejad one-timer.

The Ducks would kill the penalty but would not be able to escape the middle frame further unscathed as New York scored twice in 107 seconds to take a commanding three-goal lead to the locker room. The first came on a Ducks defensive zone breakdown as Rangers captain Jacob Trouba kept a loose puck alive at the blue line and fed it down low to an open Filip Chytil, who slid it across for Lafreniere.
The second came as the Ducks got caught trying to make a line change after a turnover, with Panarin coming unchecked down the middle and burying a wrister over Gibson's glove from the high slot.
Gibson left the game after the second period and did not return.
Anaheim got back within two goals five minutes into the third on Comtois' first of the season, a one-timer off a high-to-low pass by Shattenkirk.

Shattenkirk, who wore an "A" for Anaheim tonight alongside fellow former Rangers Vatrano and Ryan Strome, played 119 games for New York from 2017-19.
The Ducks came inches from cutting the deficit to one minutes later, but Shesterkin robbed Adam Henrique in tight with a lunging gloving save, getting just enough of the forward's bid to deflect it wide.

The teams would trade tallies in the final ten minutes, but Anaheim would come no closer than a two-goal deficit.
Zibanejad pushed the lead back to three with his second of the night, a power-play blast from the circle that got by Stolarz.
Grant scored five minutes later, finishing off a strong move in tight by Max Jones to evade a Rangers defender and slide a pass to the doorfront.

New York would hang on from there, sealing a 6-4 victory to move to 3-1-0 on the season.
The Ducks resume their five-game road trip tomorrow in New Jersey.