Artemi Panarin had three goals and an assist, Jonathan Quick won again, and the New York Rangers held on to beat the San Jose Sharks 6-5 on Sunday night.
Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist, Will Cuylle and K’Andre Miller also scored, and Jacob Trouba, Vincent Trocheck, and Jonny Brodzinski each had two assists to help the Rangers win for the sixth time in seven games. Quick stopped 23 shots to improve to 7-0-1 this season.
The Metropolitan-Division-leading Rangers are 16-2-1 since starting the season 2-2-0 and have league-bests with 18 wins and 37 points.
Anthony Duclair had a goal and an assist, and Jacob MacDonald, Fabian Zetterlund, Ryan Carpenter, and Alexander Barbanov all scored for San Jose. Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 30 saves.
The Sharks lost for the 11th time in 12 road games. San Jose was coming off a 6-3 win at New Jersey on Friday night, their first road win of the season after 10 losses.
Cuylle gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead with his fourth of the season with just under 4 minutes remaining in the second period.
Panarin then completed his hat trick — his third with the Rangers — with his team-leading 15th of the season at 4:41 of the third to make it 5-3.
Miller gave the Rangers a three-goal lead with 6:56 remaining, but Zetterlund and Barbanov scored just over a minute apart to make it a 6-5 game with 4:10 left.
Panarin leads the Rangers with 35 points and has points in 19 of his 23 games this season. He became the third player in franchise history with a season-opening home point streak of 10-plus games, joining Mike Rogers in 1983-84 and Wayne Gretzky in 1996-97.
The Rangers won for the 3,000th time in franchise history, becoming the fifth NHL team to reach the milestone.
Duclair opened the scoring 3:50 into the game, beating Quick on a breakaway for his sixth.
Panarin tied it at 8:44, beating Blackwood on the power play.
Carpenter scored his first of the season with 7:39 remaining in the period to put the Sharks back ahead, but Panarin tied it again 34 seconds later.
Zibanejad put the Rangers ahead 3-2 with 3:18 remaining in the first, beating Blackwood from in close for his sixth.
The Sharks tied it 3-3 on a power-play goal by MacDonald at 9:16 of the second, his fourth of the season and third in two games.
Lafreniere had a penalty-shot chance for the Blueshirts at 10:16 of the second but was denied by Blackwood.
