Rangers want to win division after becoming 1st team to clinch playoff berth

NEW YORK -- The New York Rangers clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-5 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. Afterward, they behaved no differently than they had in any of their previous 47 wins this season.

There were no celebrations, just smiles, nods of appreciation to what they've accomplished and thoughts to what still lies ahead.

"That's Step One for us," center Mika Zibanejad said.

Step Two is winning the Metropolitan Division. New York (48-20-4) is three points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes (45-21-7) with a game in hand.

"We have a battle with Carolina right now for the No. 1 spot in our division," Zibanejad said. "We want it."

Wednesday marks the 156th consecutive day the Rangers have been first in the division. That's an even greater accomplishment than becoming the first team to clinch a playoff berth this season and the first to 100 points.

Their calling card this season has been their consistency.

New York blipped in January, going 5-7-2, but otherwise has been at least four games over .500 in every month, going 7-2-0 in October, 9-2-1 in November, 9-5-0 in December, 10-1-0 in February and so far, 8-3-1 with two games to play in March.

The Rangers had an 11-game point streak from Oct. 21-Nov. 18 (10-0-1) and set a team record with a 10-game winning streak from Jan. 27-Feb. 24.

"For us to stay as consistent as we have, it speaks a lot to the group and what we set out to do at the start of the year," defenseman Adam Fox said.

New York has won three in a row without top-four defensemen Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren, who are out with lower-body injuries. It defeated Philadelphia on Tuesday minus four regulars, including defenseman Erik Gustafsson (upper body) and center Alex Wennberg (personal).

"There was a small glitch for about 10 games in the middle of the season where I thought we could have played better, but right now I like the way that we're playing," coach Peter Laviolette said. "We seem to be pretty good defensively with our game. We're competing hard. We're skating well. I think that the results lately have been a reflection of the way we're playing the game."

The Rangers have won 18 games when giving up the first goal, tied for fourth-most in the NHL. They have won seven when trailing going into the third period, also tied for the fourth-most.

They're 8-2-1 when tied after two periods and 10-4 in games decided in overtime.

"All year we find a way to battle back," Zibanejad said. "The way we've been coming back in these games, it's not just individual efforts; I think the whole team has been playing really well and we've been really stepping up and done the little things that we talk about every day that we have been talking about since Day One of training camp."

But there have been remarkable individual efforts.

Artemi Panarin has 102 points (43 goals, 59 assists), the most by a Rangers player since Jaromir Jagr's team record 123 in 2005-06.

Igor ShesterkinI has rebounded from a tough first half and is 12-3-1 with a 2.24 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts in 16 games since Feb. 9.

Vincent Trocheck has 72 points (25 goals, 47 assists). Fox has 63 points (15 goals, 48 assists) in 62 games, including 24 (seven goals, 17 assists) in his past 19.

Chris Kreider has 33 goals, and Alexis Lafrenière has an NHL career-high 22.

It's all a result of the standard the Rangers set for themselves in training camp to be a hard-working, relentless and attacking team that plays how it practices and has a short memory, moving past the wins quickly and learning from the losses so they don't pile up.

"There's a plan to get in [to the playoffs], right? And I think if you start looking too far ahead into a plan or if you start remembering too much of what happened four days ago, I think you get lost," Laviolette said. "I think you really have to stay current with what you're doing. Our guys have done a really good job of that."

So, they move on to the next goal: Ten games to secure first place in the division, maybe the Presidents' Trophy on top of it.

Laviolette said he doesn't want to use these 10 games to experiment with line combinations or defense pairs that he might need in the playoffs.

He'd rather get Trouba, Lindgren and Gustafsson healthy, Wennberg back and have a full lineup to go full bore down the stretch.

"I'd rather stick with what we've done," he said. "The year has gone in a direction that we would be happy with to this point; I don't think I want to go moving things around just to try things."

Not when the Rangers have more to do even before the playoffs begin next month.

"Yeah, we have bigger goals, but if you one day want to lift the Stanley Cup you have to get into the playoffs first," Zibanejad said. "We're not done."