NEW YORK (AP) — Adam Fox admitted he doesn't spend any time in practice working on his shootout attempts. The first try of his career was good enough to give the New York Rangers a big victory.
Fox scored the deciding goal in the sixth round of a shootout and the Rangers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Monday night for their ninth win in 12 games.
“Haven’t been in a shootout since maybe my junior days,” the 23-year-old All-Star defenseman said. “I don’t expect to go too often so I work on other things.”
Chris Kreider got his NHL-leading 30th goal, Barclay Goodrow also scored and Artemi Panarin had two assists as New York won its fifth straight at home. Igor Shesterkin stopped 34 shots in his 20th win of the season.
Los Angeles' Anze Kopitar and Panarin scored in the third round of the tiebreaker, and Kings rookie Quinton Byfield and New York’s Alexis Lafreniere converted in the fifth round. After Shesterkin denied Arthur Kaliyev in the sixth round, Fox roofed a slick backhand that stuck in the net to win it.
“I think he should be one of our top shooters,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “He doesn’t love to do it a lot but I think after tonight’s goal he’s going to get a lot of confidence from it. He’s got skill, he’s got talent and he made an incredible move.”
Blake Lizotte and Alex Iafallo scored in the second period for Los Angeles. Jonathan Quick made 28 saves as the Kings, coming off a 3-2 win at New Jersey the previous night, lost for the fourth time in five games.
“Very bittersweet by getting the one point,” Kopitar said. “All in all, three (points) out of four on the first two games of the road trip is not bad. ... We’ve been playing decent hockey. Obviously it’s about putting the pieces together to get the wins.”
The Rangers began overtime on a power play that carried over from the third period. After Adrian Kempe came out of the penalty box 46 seconds into the extra period, the teams played 4-on-4 for the rest of an overtime that had no whistles. New York had five shots and Los Angeles two.
Shesterkin made a stellar save on Trevor Moore's breakaway 7 1/2 minutes into the third to keep Los Angeles' lead at 2-1.
Goodrow tied it when he deflected Panarin's point shot from the left side for his eighth with 5:45 left in regulation.
With the way the Rangers have been playing, Gallant was confident they were going to tie it in the closing minutes.
“You feel good about your team, you know you've got your high-end guys playing pretty good hockey and you know you're going to get some good looks,” Gallant said. “Quick was outstanding tonight, he made some unbelievable saves. We were just hoping to get one and I think Goody made an unbelievable tip to the top corner."
Lizotte tied it 1-all with 8:05 remaining in the middle period as he rushed the puck up ice and fired a shot over Shesterkin's right shoulder for his sixth.
Panarin nearly regained the lead for New York with 1:34 left in the period as he put a backhand past Quick that went off the crossbar.
With the Kings on the power play after Goodrow's double-minor, Iafallo put Los Angeles ahead as he took a pass from Kopitar in front and backhanded it past Shesterkin for his 13th with 39 seconds to go in the second.
The Kings outshot the Rangers 11-3 in the first period.
Tempers flared after former Ranger Brendan Lemieux delivered a hard hit from behind on Ryan Lindgren into the end boards to the left of the New York net. As several Rangers approached Lemieux, Lindgren got up and skated into Lemieux, earning a two-minute penalty for cross-checking. Lemieux was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct, resulting in his ejection.
After the teams skated 4-on-4 for two minutes, the Rangers went on the power play. Quick stopped Kreider's wrist shot from the right doorstep with 43 seconds left in the period on New York's second shot on goal.
With time winding down, Kreider got the Rangers on the scoreboard as he deflected Fox's pass in front with two seconds remaining in the first. It was Kreider's league-best 15th goal on the power play.
STREAKS
Kreider has scored in six straight games, totaling nine goals and two assists during that stretch. ... Panarin extended his point streak to five games (one goal, eight assists). ... Fox extended his point streak to six games (two goals, eight assists). ... Iafallo scored for the third time in a four-game point streak.
STATS
The Rangers scored a power-play goal for the third straight game and are 5 for 12 in that stretch. ... New York improved to 17-1-2 when scoring first and 2-10-0 when trailing after two periods. ... Los Angeles fell to 15-2-4 when leading after 40 minutes. ... The Kings are 4 for 28 with the man advantage over their last nine games.
UP NEXT
Kings: At the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Rangers: At Columbus on Thursday night before playing nine of the next 11 at home.
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