Alexis Lafreniere scored twice in the first period to continue his hot start as the New York Rangers remained unbeaten on home ice with a 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.
Tye Kartye set up both Lafreniere goals after scoring twice in Sunday’s 6-2 rout of the Vancouver Canucks.
Mika Zibanejad also scored unassisted on a short-handed, empty-net goal with 2:44 remaining during the final seconds of Tampa Bay’s 6-on-4 power play.
Lafreniere scored his sixth and seventh goals in the opening 12:47 as the Rangers improved to 5-0-0 at home. It is New York’s best start on home ice since opening the 1990-91 season with eight straight victories and third time in team history that the Rangers won their first five home games.
Lafreniere also scored for a career-high fourth straight game and notched his 12th career multi-goal game to continue his strong start after getting his seventh goal in his 31st game last season.
Will Cuylle scored late in the second period for the Rangers, who won for the sixth time in eight games and beat Tampa Bay for the second time after pulling away for a 5-1 victory over the visiting Lightning on Oct. 1.
Dylan Garand made 25 saves in New York’s second game since losing star goalie Igor Shesterkin to a season-ending lower-body injury.
He improved his career record to 5-1-1 and highlighted the win with a point-blank glove save on John Carlson with 8:16 remaining. Garand also made a pad save on Brayden Point’s backhand try with about 5 1/2 minutes left and another stop on Nikita Kucherov with 3 1/2 minutes left during Tampa Bay’s 6-on-4 power play.
Zemgus Girgensons scored late in the opening period for the Lightning, whose four-game winning streak was topped.
Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves.
Lafreniere opened the scoring 62 seconds into the contest when he went to the front of the net, withstood a scramble, took a pass from Kartye and chipped the puck into the net. He scored shortly after Kartye knocked Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman off the puck in the right corner.
Lafreniere made it 2-0 by fending off Anthony Cirelli and finishing off a breakaway when Kartye made a long backhand pass while clearing the defensive zone.
Girgensons put a shot by Garand from the left circle with 2:34 left in the opening period. Cuylle re-directed a shot from Sean Durzi past Vasilevskiy with 94 seconds left in the second period.
