Panarin scores 2, Rangers defeat Canucks for 6th straight win

VANCOUVER -- Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad each scored twice and had an assist for the New York Rangers in their sixth straight win, 6-4 against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.

Panarin has eight points (six goals, two assists) in his past two games for the Rangers (32-14-8), who have points in eight straight (7-0-1).
"He says he's a passer, but he can score too," said Zibanejad, who has seven goals in a five-game goal streak and nine points on a five-game point streak.

Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves for New York, which has averaged five goals per game during the winning streak.
"We have the high-powered offense to do that," Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey said. "[Panarin and Zibanejad] are world-class players and they can be game-breakers every night so if one's not going, the other one might be going that night. But tonight, Mika had two and [Panarin] had two, so I think if that's going to happen, we're going to be tough to beat."
Arturs Silovs made 22 saves in his NHL debut, Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist, and Elias Pettersson had two assists for the Canucks (21-30-4), who are 1-4-1 in their past six games.
"It's different skills, different speed. It was fun to play and get that experience," Silovs said. "It's going to help me a lot long term, because at least I know what it is. I know what I can be better at so I can push myself even more."
Curtis Lazar put Vancouver ahead 1-0 when a rebound shot deflected in off him at 4:52, but Zibanejad tied it 1-1 at 5:51 when he faked a shot coming down the right wing, then shot it between Silovs.
"I got some pretty good speed coming down and tried to freeze him and see what he gives me," Zibanejad said. "I don't know if he bit on the pump fake, and I saw opening between his legs there and tried to put it five-hole and it went in."

Panarin made it 2-1 with a one-timer over a sprawling Silovs from the bottom left face-off circle after a cross-ice pass from Vesey.
J.T. Miller tied it 2-2 at 12:45 on the power play with a one-timer from outside the right face-off dot that went past the blocker of Shesterkin, who had lost his stick when it got caught in the skate of defenseman Jacob Trouba earlier in the sequence.
Panarin made it 3-2 at 15:36 by deflecting a point shot between Silovs' legs, giving him 12 points (six goals, six assists) during a five-game point streak.
"He can be as deadly as anyone in the League," Vesey said. "Right now he's hot, and it's a tough matchup for other teams."
Chris Kreider scored on a backdoor pass from Zibanejad on a 3-on-2 rush 50 seconds into the second period to make it 4-2. Kreider has seven points (three goals, four assists) on a six-game point streak. It was also Kreider's 251st NHL goal, all with the Rangers, moving him ahead of Mark Messier (250) for sixth place in franchise history.
"Good for him," coach Gerard Gallant said. "Mark Messier is a Hall of Famer and a great player, one of the great players of all time, so it's good for [Kreider]."

Conor Garland cut it to 4-3 with a rebound goal at 9:26 after Kuzmenko hit the crossbar after a pretty move in tight just after a power play expired.
K'Andre Miller made it 5-3 with a screened point shot at 13:28.
Vancouver has allowed five goals or more in four straight games and in 26 of 55 games this season.
"They've got some good weapons, both on their [defensemen] and forwards," Pettersson said. "But we know that. I think we've just got to just got to be better."
Kuzmenko took a drop pass from Pettersson and scored on a glove-side wrist shot from between the top of the circles at 8:51 of the third period to make it 5-4.
Zibanejad scored into an empty net with 1:34 left for the 6-4 final.
"We can always look at the defensive side and say we need to clean up this and that, but they can score as well," Zibanejad said. "We keep talking about doing the right things and we know we can score and [we've] just got to make sure we make the right decisions, that we don't try to sacrifice the defensive part."
NOTES:Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson left favoring his left leg at 13:30 of the first period after attempting to hit Vladimir Tarasenko along the boards. Coach Rick Tocchet did not have an update after the game. ... Tocchet also said he didn't think Lazar, who left with a lower-body injury with five minutes left in the third period, had a serious injury. ... Trouba had one assist to extend his point streak to four games (five points; one goal, four assists).