Rangers strike early, cruise to road win over Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Apparently, the Rangers learned their lesson.

One night after a stunning loss to the lowly Montreal Canadiens, the Rangers went to work with purpose against a Blue Jackets team that sits last in the Eastern Conference. They built a three-goal lead through two periods and held on for a 3-1 victory Monday at Nationwide Arena.

Columbus dropped to 13-28-2, the second-fewest points in the league, putting the Blue Jackets near the top of the Conor Bedard Sweepstakes.

“The first two periods, we were pretty dominant and I loved the way we played,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “And they get that goal early in the third period and that puts a little scare into you. But we played well and we competed real hard, so I like the win.’’

“We all realize that obviously the effort [Sunday night] just wasn’t good enough,’’ said forward Barclay Goodrow, who scored the first power-play goal of his career to put the Rangers ahead 2-0 just before the end of the first period. “And sometimes you have to learn those lessons the hard way.

“But you know, I thought we came in tonight, right from the drop of the puck, we were on it, we were committed, our effort was obviously way better. And it showed with our possession and the way we carried the play.’’

Mika Zibanejad, who became the sixth Ranger to record six consecutive 20-goal seasons, gave the Rangers (25-13-7) the lead at 12:39 of the first period. Goodrow tipped in a shot by K’Andre Miller with 57.8 seconds left in the period to make it 2-0.

In the second period, Vitali Kravtsov drove the net and jammed in a pass from Filip Chytil to make it 3-0 at 11:47. The assist was Chytil’s 12th of the season and gave him 24 points, a career high.

At that point, the Rangers were in control, outshooting Columbus 26-12 after the first 40 minutes. But Columbus made a push in the third to make a game of it. Defenseman Andrew Peeke scored on a four-on-four at 1:21 and the Blue Jackets kicked it up a notch or two.

Rangers backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who got the start on the second night of the back-to-back and had little to do in the first period and slightly more in the second, suddenly was under siege. But Halak held up under the pressure, making 12 saves in the third period and 24 in the game to earn his fourth consecutive victory and fifth in his last six starts.

“He made some key saves in that third period when it was 3-1, so that’s definitely big for our club,’’ Gallant said.

“He made some big saves, some really big saves, at key moments in the game tonight,’’ Goodrow said. “Even in the last five minutes, there’s a few pucks that could have gone in the net that he didn’t let in, so it was great to see. He’s been playing awesome for us.’’

Halak, who skated briefly in the morning with the extra players, improved to 5-6-1 after starting 0-5-1. The Rangers won for the sixth time in the last nine games (6-1-2) and the 14th time in the last 19 (14-3-2) since starting 11-10-5.

Said Goodrow, “I think the growth you’ve seen since December and the improvement in our game, and you can see when the effort is there, and when we’re all committed to winning a game, it’s a pretty good team.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.