Pettersson has 4 points, Canucks defeat Rangers

NEW YORK -- Elias Pettersson had four points on two goals and two assists, and All-Star defenseman Quinn Hughes had an assist and was a plus-4 for the Vancouver Canucks in a 6-3 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

Hughes improved to an NHL-best plus-30.

"He was dialed in today," Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said of Hughes. "If you watched him, he wanted the puck every time, he wanted to be on in every situation. He gets like that sometimes. You just look at him and he wants it. He craves the pressure."

Nils Hoglander scored twice, and Brock Boeser had a goal and two assists for the Canucks (26-11-3), who tied the Rangers and Winnipeg Jets for the most wins in the NHL. Thatcher Demko made 39 saves.

"Yeah, you should enjoy this, but to be a really good hockey team, consistent all the time you've got to make sure they stay even-keeled," Tocchet said. "I've got to give the guys credit, they're really learning to be even-keeled. I don't think we're strutting around, but you should enjoy it and have confidence. The Rangers pressed and we made a couple of nice plays under pressure. That's what I like, not backing off. You can't hold that team for 60 minutes. It's a really good hockey team, and I thought for the most part we did a good job even when they pressed us."

Vincent Trocheck (two goals), Artemi Panarin (goal, assist) and Alexis Lafrenière (two assists) each had two points for the Rangers (26-11-2). Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves.

New York is 4-4-1 in its past nine games, allowing 3.22 goals per game, including four or more in each of the four regulation losses. It also lost 6-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 2.

The Rangers allowed 2.70 goals against per game in their first 30 games, going 22-7-1.

"When we found success early in the season it was playing solid defensively, limiting the odd man rushes, general opportunities and chances against," New York captain Jacob Trouba said. "You look at our group we've got a pretty good special teams unit on both sides. I think not putting ourselves down in a hole 5-on-5 and giving up those opportunities, depending on our goalies to make too many saves that they shouldn't have to make, that's not where we were earlier in the year. That's what's drifted into our game a little bit with the lack of details. It's up to us to dig ourselves out, recognize it and get back to what made us successful earlier in the year."

Trocheck gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 3:38 of the first period.

The Canucks scored the next three goals, the first coming 53 seconds later when J.T. Miller scored with a one-timer from the left face-off circle off a pass from Pettersson to make it 1-1 at 4:31.

Hoglander's one-timer from the slot got past Shesterkin at 6:45 to give Vancouver a 2-1 lead. The play started with a quick-up pass through the neutral zone from Hughes to Sam Lafferty.

Hughes did it again to help set up Boeser's goal that made it 3-1 at 19:44.

Boeser scored off the rush after Hughes hit Pettersson with a bank pass up off the right-wing wall while the Rangers were changing their defense pair. Pettersson moved the puck up to Boeser past K'Andre Miller, who had just come on the ice. Boeser deked to his backhand and roofed his shot past Shesterkin.

"We made mental mistakes," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We made line change mistakes, we made turnover mistakes. I don't feel like we were in our end taking heat the entire night, but the mistakes that we made they were loud, I mean they were really loud. It's just too much for our goaltenders. We've got to be better than that."

Panarin scored from the right circle at 8:19 of the second period to cut it to 3-2.

But Pettersson made it 4-2 at 15:33, scoring off his own rebound by getting the puck back, going to his backhand to get it around Shesterkin's left pad and then to his forehand to tuck it in.

Hoglander pulled the puck bwteeen his legs to his backhand and scored at 16:47 to extend the lead to 5-2.

"I've seen that before," Pettersson said of Hoglander's move on his goal. "He plays like that, which he should. He plays with a lot of speed. It's a countryman right there scoring a nice goal. I was excited for him."

Trocheck scored from the left circle to make it 5-3 at 3:36 of the third period. Pettersson scored into the empty net at 18:29 for the 6-3 final.

NOTES: Hughes' defense partner, Filip Hronek, was also plus-4 with two assists. ... In the two games they've played together on the same line, Miller, Boeser and Pettersson have combined for 16 points (eight goals, eight assists). … Pettersson has scored twice in two straight games and three of four. … Hoglander hadn't scored two goals in a game since Dec. 10, 2021. … Trocheck has three straight multipoint games and four in five games. He has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past five games.