Rangers building confidence with strong win over Capitals

When the Rangers were dominated and thoroughly outplayed in Tuesday’s loss to the Devils, it represented a huge step back for a team that had, for the most part this season, played well but had little to show for it.

But sometimes you have to take a step back to take two forward. And the Rangers certainly can feel as though they’ve taken those two steps forward with road victories in each of the two games they’ve played since that ugly performance against the Devils.

Ryan Strome had a milestone goal and a milestone assist, struggling forwards Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere also scored and Artemi Panarin had a pair of assists as the Rangers beat the Washington Capitals, 4-1, at Capital One Arena in Washington on Saturday.

"It’s been frustrating for all of us, but it’s nice to get rewarded with this nice road trip,’’ said Strome, who assisted on Chris Kreider’s first-period power-play goal for his 100th point as a Ranger and scored his 100th career goal late in the second period to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead.

"These are two pretty good teams, and [it’s good] to have two good efforts and go home feeling pretty good after these two.’’

After recording a 3-2 shootout victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia on Thursday, the Rangers (6-7-3) played Saturday without second-year forward Kaapo Kakko, who was unavailable after being placed on the team’s COVID list for the second time this season. They got a boost from the return of rookie defenseman K’Andre Miller, who had missed the two previous games with an upper-body injury.

In an effort to get Zibanejad out of his season-long funk, coach David Quinn shook up his top two lines and put No. 1 center Zibanejad together with Panarin, the team’s leading scorer. With Kakko out, Quinn put Lafreniere, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft, on the right side of those two.

Panarin, who already had earned an assist on Kreider’s goal, set up Lafreniere all alone in front of Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek, and the 19-year-old made a nice backhand finish for his second goal of the season and a 2-0 lead at 17:44 of the second period.

Strome, playing between Zibanejad’s usual linemates, Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich, scored 59 seconds later. He fired a wrist shot from the left point that made its way through a maze of bodies and got by Vanecek for his fifth goal of the season.

Dmitry Orlov’s goal got the Capitals (8-5-3) on the board 39 seconds later, but the Rangers’ commitment to defense, their penalty kill (4-for-4) and goaltender Igor Shesterkin (26 saves) kept Washington at bay after that.

Zibanejad ended a 12-game goal drought with a shorthanded empty-net goal with 2:12 remaining in the game.

Quinn, who had seemed so despondent after the loss to the Devils and then had been so proud after the win over the Flyers, was feeling even better after this one.

"We’ve responded in this short season so far,’’ he said. "A real poor performance against the Devils, and . . . we just go on the road, get four points against Philly and then Washington, that’s a pretty good road trip.’’

With Sunday’s game against Washington postponed to allow the Capitals to host the Devils, the Rangers will be off for three days before returning to action Wednesday in Philadelphia. And they’ll enjoy the break.

"We clearly have more confidence on this team,’’ Panarin said. "We’re creating more mutual respect for each other and more care and love for each other and we’re moving in the right direction.’’

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.