Jonathan Quick made 24 saves for his second consecutive shutout and the 62nd of his career as the New York Rangers defeated the host Seattle Kraken 2-0 on Sunday night.
Alexis Lafreniere and Zac Jones scored for the Rangers, who won their second game in a row and improved to 10-0-0 when scoring first this season. Quick, in his 18th NHL season, has won all four of his starts.
Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 23 shots as the Kraken had a four-game winning streak snapped. Grubauer was making his first start since Nov. 5. He missed four games with an undisclosed injury due to an “unfortunate accident” at home, according to Kraken coach Dan Bylsma.
The Rangers opened the scoring at 17:30 of the second period. Artemi Panarin picked off a clearing attempt by Seattle defenseman Ryker Evans and immediately fired the puck across the top of the crease to Lafreniere, who redirected the pass into the net from just inside the far post for his seventh goal of the season.
New York doubled its advantage at 2:58 of the third. Defenseman Zac Jones carried the puck out of his own zone along the right-wing boards and passed ahead to Will Cuylle, who fed Kaapo Kakko. Jones moved to the left wing as he entered the offensive zone. When Kakko’s dump-in went off the leg of Seattle defenseman Will Borgen, Jones collected the puck and put a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot over Grubauer’s shoulder for his first goal of the season.
The Rangers were without center Filip Chytil, who didn’t accompany the team for the first stop on its four-game trip because of an upper-body injury suffered in New York’s 3-2 victory against visiting San Jose on Thursday.
Seattle forward Ben Meyers, recalled Saturday from Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League, made his Kraken debut. Meyers replaced center Shane Wright, the fourth overall draft pick in 2022, who was a healthy scratch after going pointless since Oct. 17. Wright played a season-low 8 minutes, 34 seconds in the Kraken’s 3-2 victory against the visiting New York Islanders on Saturday.
