Michael Grabner scores twice in Rangers win

EDMONTON -- Forward Michael Grabner scored two goals and backup goaltender Antti Raanta made 38 saves for the New York Rangers in a 3-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Sunday.
The Rangers played with 11 forwards after Chris Kreider was ruled out because of an upper-body injury and left wing Pavel Buchnevich was scratched with back spasms following warm-ups.
"We find out in the afternoon that [Kreider] wasn't going to be available for us and then just after warm-up Pavel said that he couldn't go also, so we were down to 11 forwards and we had to grind it out and grease it out," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "I thought we came out real well, moved the puck, got some quality opportunities and scored a couple of goals. After that, there was no doubt they had a real strong push and I thought, for the most part, our goaltender made some big saves and our guys battled through back-to-back games."

WATCH: All Rangers vs. Oilers highlights
Dan Girardi scored for New York (12-4-0), which has defeated the Oilers twice in less than two weeks, including a 5-3 win at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 3.
Andrej Sekera scored for the Oilers (9-6-1), who have lost three straight games for the first time this season. Edmonton goaltender Cam Talbot made 24 saves.
"It's nice to play when the team is playing like that," Raanta said. "We had a tough game [Saturday] night (4-1 win at the Calgary Flames) and everybody knew that Edmonton is coming hard tonight and everybody put [out] everything that they had in their tanks and it was a pretty hard-fought last 40 minutes against that kind of team, they have so much skill and offense. Guys were doing a great job in front of me and it was nice to get lots of saves and make good saves and help the team to win."
Grabner scored on the Rangers' first shot 1:20 into the game on a rebound in front. It was seventh time this season Edmonton has given up a goal inside the first two minutes. Girardi made it 2-0 at 13:18 on a delayed penalty, directing a pass in front from Kevin Hayes past Talbot.

"It's disappointing," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "The Rangers are one of the top two or three teams in the National Hockey League, we gave them a gift on the back check on the first goal and [Ryan Nugent-Hopkins] gives them a present on the third goal. Two presents against a top two team in the League, not a chance. And then you don't score on them."
Sekera scored for the Oilers at 18:45 of the first period to make it 2-1, redirecting a centering pass from Connor McDavid over Raanta.
Grabner scored at 14:35 of the second period to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead after intercepting a pass from Nugent-Hopkins.
With his two goals, Grabner has 10 this season. He is one behind Winnipeg Jets right wing Patrik Laine, who leads the NHL with 11.
"I'm just trying to go out there and play my role," Grabner said. "It's just been going good from the start, from the first game on. I think that's a big part of hockey, when you get confidence, it seems to be going out there and not thinking and good things happen."

Goal of the game

Grabner intercepted a pass from Nugent-Hopkins at the Rangers blue line with 5:25 left in the second period, went in on a breakaway and scored past Talbot to give New York a 3-1 lead.

Save of the game

Talbot made an excellent pad save on Mika Zibanejad in front on a set up out of the corner from Mats Zuccarello with 10 seconds left in the first period.

Unsung moment of the game

With 1:40 left in the second period, Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei took a hit along the boards from Zack Kassian to make a breakout pass to Rick Nash just inside the New York blue line. Nash took the pass and broke out on a 2-on-1 rush with Grabner and generated an excellent scoring opportunity.

Highlight of the game

On a delayed penalty, the Rangers controlled the puck in the Oilers zone. J.T. Miller passed it across the zone to Hayes along the boards, who spotted Girardi in front for a tip past Talbot.

They said it

"Back-to-back and then losing a guy, everyone stepped up, everyone battled out there it was tough game for us and it was a big win. Everyone was able to step up their game a little bit and battle hard." -- Rangers forward Michael Grabner
"We're well aware of that, we play the game, we know we're giving up early goals and we're obviously trying to figure it out. For whatever reason, we're slow out of the gate." -- Edmonton captain Connor McDavid on the seventh goal the Oilers have allowed this season inside of two minutes
"Our plan was if we ever got a power play we were going to use him, but we didn't get one tonight, so we didn't use him." -- Rangers coach Alain Vigneault on not giving defenseman Adam Clendening a shift

Need to know

McDavid has not scored a goal in his past eight games, but has seven assists. … Grabner had nine goals in 80 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs last season. … The Oilers have lost six of their past eight games (2-5-1) after winning seven of their first eight.

What's next

Rangers: At the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, MSG, NHL.TV)
Oilers: At the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; PRIME, SNOL, NHL.TV)