LAS VEGAS — Alexandar Georgiev stopped 38 shots for his second shutout of the season and the New York Rangers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-0 on Sunday night.
Georgiev, who recorded his first shutout of the season at New Jersey on Nov. 30, was making his fourth start in five games. It was the 23-year-old’s fourth career shutout.
Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba, Jesper Fast and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers.
The Golden Knights hadn’t been shutout since last Feb. 18 at Colorado. They came into the game with at least one goal in 52 consecutive regulation games, the third longest active streak behind Boston (84 games) and Florida (56).
Malcolm Subban, making his seventh straight start for Vegas, made 20 saves.
The Golden Knights had their five-game point streak snapped as they dropped to 7-6-3 at home this season.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead after defenceman Tony DeAngelo made a nice spin move near the blue line and passed the puck to the top of the left circle for Marc Staal, who then fired the puck to the top of the right circle for Panarin, whose wrist shot beat Subban 4:08 into the game.
Kreider struck 14 seconds later, when he pelted Ryan Strome’s cross-ice feed past Subban’s skate, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
Early in the second period Vegas forward Ryan Reaves was hit with a double-minor for high-sticking New York forward Brendan Lemieux in the face and the Rangers wasted no time on the power play. After Subban’s save caromed to his right, Trouba stopped the puck with his skate, kicked it to his forehand and punched it in a wide-open net to make it 3-0 at 7:14.
Trouba then helped extend the lead when his pass from the top of the right circle found Fast in perfect position to lift the puck over Subban’s pad and give the Rangers a commanding 4-0 lead with 9 1/2 minutes left in the middle period.
The Golden Knights lost rookie Cody Glass late in the second when Lemieux came crashing in with a spinning elbow to the temple that left Vegas’ first-ever draft pick on his knees writhing in pain. Glass had to be helped off the ice and to the locker room.
Zibanejad got credit for the Rangers’ fifth goal when the puck went off Golden Knights defenceman Brayden McNabb and past Subban with just under five minutes left in the third.
NOTES
Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said with just only practice since returning to the team after his father died, starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury needed more time before returning to the net. … Donning a Golden Knights jersey, country music star Shania Twain cranked the pregame siren just before puck drop. … Since the start of the 2014-15 season, the Rangers have posted a 48-21-10 record in 79 games against teams in the Pacific Division. … Lemieux played in his 100th career game.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Play the second of their four-game road trip in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Golden Knights: Host Chicago on Tuesday
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W.G. Ramirez, The Associated Press