Rangers defeat Canucks for eighth straight win at home

NEW YORK -- Jimmy Vesey scored in the seventh round of the shootout to give the New York Rangers their eighth straight win at Madison Square Garden, 4-3 against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
It's the longest home winning streak for the Rangers since they won nine games in a row from Oct. 19-Nov. 23, 2015.

Vesey, Jesper Fast and Michael Grabner scored for the Rangers (13-9-2), who have won four games in a row. Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves through overtime and five more in the shootout.
\[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Rangers highlights\]
"We have to feel good about what we've been doing here the past four weeks," Lundqvist said. "Our record is really good, but this league is so competitive ... you have to earn it every night and prepare a certain way and put in the effort all the time to get any points. We had a tough time, but we got it done tonight with a really strong third."
Kevin Shattenkirk and Rick Nash had shootout goals for New York, which scored twice in the third period.
"I thought the third period was our best," Nash said. "Good teams find ways to win the games that they don't play their best, and I thought we did that."
Loui Eriksson, Jake Virtanen and Sam Gagner scored for the Canucks (11-9-4), who have lost two games in a row. Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves.
Vancouver led by two goals late in the second period before Fast scored at 17:40 to make it 2-1.
Grabner scored 19 seconds into the third period to tie it 2-2.

"We had a few tough shifts at the end of the second period, and they came out in the first shift of the third and got the goal, so it was tough," Eriksson said. "We have to find ways to win these games when you're up a few goals. It's tough when they come back and win it like this."
Gagner scored 41 seconds after Grabner to give Vancouver a 3-2 lead one minute into the third.
Vesey scored on a backhand to tie it 3-3 at 5:05 after a nice individual effort by Nash, who beat defenseman Michael Del Zotto to the puck in the right face-off-circle after Kevin Hayes chipped it in from the red line, spun and passed to Vesey in the slot.
"I was kind of just coming in late and might have gotten lost in coverage by Vancouver," Vesey said. "Rick made a great pass, and I tried to bring it to my backhand and get it up. I figured Markstrom might still be sliding one way."
Eriksson gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 7:54 of the first period. Rangers defenseman Paul Carey turned over the puck at the blue line, and Henrik Sedin passed to Eriksson, who scored with a wrist shot from inside the right circle.

Virtanan made it 2-0 at 7:21 of the second period, scoring on a wrist shot after getting to the loose puck in the left circle.
"It's obviously tough," Virtanen said. "We definitely want to have those games, especially when we have the lead. They definitely made a push, but I thought we still played really well. We got the point, but we'd rather have two for sure."
The Rangers are 10-4-2 at home. The 16 home games are the most in the League, with New York playing eight of their first 24 on the road.
"We need to have a good feeling, and that's what we have right now in our building" Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "Preparation was good today."

Goal of the game

Vesey's goal in the seventh round of the shootout.

Save of the game

Lundqvist stopping Thomas Vanek in the first round of the shootout.

Highlight of the game

Vesey's goal at 5:05 of the third period.

They said it

"Going into the shootout, I was going to shoot first, but [Henrik Lundqvist] came up to me and told me to let them shoot first. [Lundqvist] was on top of his game today, so I trusted him on that. We'll take the two points and not say a word." -- Rangers coach Alain Vigneault
"We come into Madison Square Garden and hold a team like that to 20 shots ... you're not going to hear me complain about a lot of things. ... I'm not disappointed. We played well tonight against a real good hockey team and responded from a [3-2 loss against the New Jersey Devils on Friday] where I thought we were just OK." -- Canucks coach Travis Green

Need to know

Canucks center Brandon Sutter (undisclosed injury) did not play. Green said he could miss the final two of their six-game road trip, which continues Tuesday at the New York Islanders and ends Thursday at the Nashville Predators. ... Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh missed his third straight game because of an abdominal strain. ... Canucks forward Daniel Sedin didn't have a point and remains two from 1,000 in his NHL career.

What's next

Canucks:At the New York Islanders on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, SNP, NHL.TV)
Rangers: Host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, MSG, FS-F, NHL.TV)