Dylan Garand made 27 saves to earn his first NHL win, and a trio of young players stole the show as the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
Garand, Adam Sykora and Drew Fortescue were all named the three stars of the game after none of the three was on the roster a week ago.
“This is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Garand said. “It was pretty special.”
Garand made several key stops, including a glove save on Connor Bedard in the first period and a blocker stop on a Landon Slaggert breakaway late in the third. It was his second NHL start after stopping 35 shots in a shootout loss to Winnipeg on March 22.
Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said Garand has been impressive in both starts.
“I thought he looked really solid in there,” Sullivan said. “I know how hard he’s worked to get to this point.”
Sykora scored his first NHL goal on a wrist shot during a 2-on-1 in the second period.
“I saw a spot under the blocker and I just tried to shoot it,” Sykora said. “I enjoyed the moment and hopefully I’ll get more.”
Fortescue, a 20-year-old defenseman making his NHL debut, picked up an assist in 17:23 of ice time.
“They all came over to me and said something,” Fortescue said. “That’s pretty cool.”
J.T. Miller had a goal and two assists, and Jonny Brodzinski scored twice for New York, which snapped a six-game losing streak. Alexis Lafreniere added a power-play goal in the third.
Nick Lardis scored for Chicago, which has lost six of its last eight games and remains 10 points behind Nashville for the second wild card in the Western Conference. Arvid Soderblom stopped 33 shots.
The Blackhawks had seven rookies in the lineup and were outshot 16-4 in the second period after keeping pace in the first.
“We had a pretty good first, we were in the game,” forward Tyler Bertuzzi said. “Something changed in the second and third and we just weren’t playing our game.”
Sykora became the sixth Rangers player to score his first career NHL goal this season.
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