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Mika Zibanejad is finding the net again. He’s feeling good — and so are the Rangers.
Zibanejad had three goals and three assists, Adam Fox had five assists and the New York Rangers routed the Philadelphia Flyers 8-3 on Thursday night.
Zibanejad also had three goals and three assists in a 9-0 home win over the Flyers in their previous meeting eight days ago. He’s the first NHL player ever with six or more points in consecutive games against one opponent in the same regular season.
“The puck seems to go in right now,” Zibanejad said. “It’s nice to be able to contribute offensively for the team. It’s obviously a great feeling when you win and you can contribute.”
New York continued where it left off in this one. Pavel Buchnevich added two goals, and Ryan Strome, K’Andre Miller and Filip Chytil also scored as the Rangers won their third straight and fifth in their last seven games.
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“A lot of it is our top players executing plays,” acting coach Kris Knoblauch said of the Rangers’ recent success. “Just really capitalizing on our opportunities, really good opportunities, but capitalizing.”
Zibanejad has been at the forefront of late. He had a career-high 41 goals in just 57 games last season, but struggled through the first 27 games this year with just three tallies. That changed in last Wednesday’s win over the Flyers, and he’s up to 10 goals through 32 games.
“I don’t know if self-doubt is the right word, but it was a struggle obviously for me to get the puck in the net,” he said. “I try to stick by the work and trust myself that it’s going to come. Now it’s really been going for me and the whole team as well.”
Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes and Sean Couturier scored for the slumping Flyers, who have lost four in a row and 10 of 14.
“This team has really lost its identity from where we were at the beginning of the year to where we are now,” defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said. “We have to find something now. We’re too good of a team to let it squander away. It’s unacceptable.”
The Rangers scored three straight goals in the opening period then notched two power-play goals in the opening 2:06 of the second to chase goalie Carter Hart, who allowed five goals on 10 shots. They scored another goal 36 seconds later on their first shot against Brian Elliott.
Eleven shots, six goals and a 15-0 goal run over two games.
“We’re going to get back to work,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. “We’re going to…
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