Panarin gets hat trick, assist, Rangers ease past Red Wings

DETROIT -- Artemi Panarin scored a hat trick and had an assist for the New York Rangers in a 5-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

“Tonight was definitely our night,” Panarin said. “I don’t want to say too much, because it was only one game, but we had everything going very well.”

Panarin, who has 11 points (five goals, six assists), is the first Rangers player to have multiple points in each of the first four games of a season. The last NHL player to do it was Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, who had at least two points in the first six games of the 2021-22 season. Mario Lemieux holds the NHL record of 12 in 1992-93.

“I didn’t know that, but that’s awesome,” Panarin said of the mark. “I’m going to try to keep that going.”

Vincent Trocheck had a goal and three assists, and Adam Fox had three assists for the Rangers (3-0-1), who opened the season with a four-game point streak for the first time since 2008-2009.

New York went 3-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.

“I liked that we faced some early adversity with the penalty kill and responded so well,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “The power play was good all night and the penalty kill was big early in the game.”

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for New York, which also defeated Detroit 4-1 on Monday.

“I thought the defense did a great job in front of me,” Quick said. “There were plenty of battles in front of the net and our guys were coming out on top.”

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for the Red Wings (1-3-0). Cam Talbot allowed five goals on 19 shots before being replaced midway through the second period by Alex Lyon, who stopped all 15 shots he faced.

Detroit had an extended power-play chance early in the game, including 43 seconds of 5-on-3. The Red Wings didn’t score, dropping them to 1-12 for the season.

“We got a set play at 5-on-3 with a full open net and didn’t execute,” said Detroit coach Derek Lalonde. “This game was 100 percent special teams.”

Panarin then gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 8:30, scoring off a cross-ice pass by Trocheck after Alexis Lafreniere forced a turnover in the Red Wings end.

Panarin made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 15:39, putting a wrist shot over Talbot’s shoulder from the top of the left face-off circle.

Seider cut it to 2-1 at 1:27 of the second period, but Trocheck made it 3-1 at 8:46, tipping in Panarin’s shot on the power play.

Panarin completed the hat trick with another power-play goal to extend it to 4-1 at 11:42. He scored on a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Fox.

“They obviously got the power play going,” Detroit defenseman Ben Chiarot said. “Three in a row -- it is a really good power play and if you give them that many chances, it is dangerous.”

Victor Mancini scored his first NHL goal on a wrist shot near the blue line to push it to 5-1 at 12:20. Mancini, a Michigan native, had a large cheering section.

“Words can’t really describe that feeling, especially in Michigan,” he said. “My mom and my grandmother were here, along with a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.”

Compher made it 5-2 at 16:41 of the third period with a power-play goal.

NOTES: Panarin recorded his 23rd career four-point game. Among players to debut since 1963-64 (when the NHL Draft was introduced), only seven undrafted players have had as many four-point performances: Wayne Gretzky (217), Phil Esposito (70), Peter Stastny (54), Bobby Orr (42), Adam Oates (41), Dino Ciccarelli (30) and Ken Hodge (23). … Fox had three assists for the second time this season and the 13th time in his career, surpassing Bill Gadsby and Brad Park for sole possession of second by a Rangers defenseman. Only Brian Leetch (37) has more. … Panarin has 56 three-point games since joining the Rangers in 2019-20. The only NHL players with more in that span are McDavid (83) and Leon Draisaitl (65).