Panarin gets 900th point in Rangers win against Senators

OTTAWA -- Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist to reach 900 NHL points, and the New York Rangers won their NHL-leading 12th game on the road, 4-2 against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

“It means a lot,” Panarin said of the milestone. “It also means I’ve had a long time in this league.”

Panarin is the sixth undrafted player since 1963-64 to reach 900 career points in 800 games or fewer (781), joining Wayne Gretzky (385 games), Peter Stastny (599 games), Bobby Orr (638 games), Phil Esposito (692 games) and Adam Oates (735 games).

“He’s a unique talent and he drives offense in so many different ways,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said of Panarin. “He just has an ability to see the ice and see plays develop. He’s one step ahead of everybody on the rink, and that’s the game that he’s played for so long.”

J.T. Miller had three assists, and Mika Zibanejad, Will Borgen and Vladislav Gavrikov scored for the Rangers (15-12-2), who have won five of their past six games. Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves.

“I just liked our effort,” Sullivan said. “I thought we competed hard all night long. There were some momentum swings in the game. That’s a good team, they’ve got a lot of team speed.”

Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Cozens scored for the Senators (13-10-4), who have lost three of their past four. Leevi Merilainen made 23 saves.

“I thought we played a pretty good game against a pretty good team,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “It’s a pretty fine line between winning and losing in the NHL. I thought their goalie played well and we came up short.”

Zibanejad gave New York a 1-0 lead at 3:19 of the first period. He received a cross-slot pass from Miller and put a shot past Merilainen’s outstretched glove on a 2-on-1.

Zibanejad has six points (three goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak.

“I think we try to play within our structure,” Zibanejad said. “We know when it’s time to defend and when we have to play to them. Structure is usually more so for getting into the O-zone, really, and then your creativity and your decision-making kind of takes over, and I think we’ve been feeling that out a little bit more and getting some more confidence in making those plays and making the right plays.”

Gavrikov pushed it to 2-0 when he skated in from the point and picked the top right corner with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle at 9:45.

“We’ve got to keep that momentum,” Gavrikov said of his team’s recent play. “Now is the time to start climbing in the standings. We’ve got to earn every single night those two points and show them a good game.”

Cozens cut the deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 18:30, taking a no-look, behind-the-back pass from Batherson and beating Shesterkin glove side with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Senators center Shane Pinto left the game due to a lower-body injury after taking a hit along the boards from Zibanejad in the first period.

The Rangers extended their lead to 3-1 at 7:24 of the second period when Borgen beat Merilainen blocker side with a long-distance wrist shot through traffic.

“I definitely think there was some lapses at some points they pushed,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “And in those parts of the game I think we can learn a lot from. But I think in the second half of the game we really got back to our game.”

Tkachuk cut it to 3-2 at 13:08 of the third period with a one-timer that redirected in off of Batherson’s shin pad on the power play.

“There was parts of our game that we liked and a few parts we didn’t like,” Batherson said. “We gave them a couple chances there early on, to a couple of their best players. I thought in the third period we made a good push back. Their goalie played pretty solid, give him credit. But not a bad game.”

Panarin scored into an empty net for the 4-2 final at 19:16.

NOTES: Pinto will be reevaluated on Friday. “I’m hoping it’s not going to be too long,” Green said. … Zibanejad tied Ron Greschner (610) for the seventh-most points in Rangers history.