NEW YORK — Daniil Tarasov made 30 saves for his first NHL win in his seventh game, and the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the New York Rangers 5-1 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Tarasov allowed nine goals in losing his first two starts this season and the 23-year-old went 0-2-0 with seven goals against in four games (three starts) last season.
The Blue Jackets (3-4-0) got goals from five different players — Zach Werenski, Andrew Peeke, Yegor Chinakhov, Eric Robinson and Kent Johnson. Liam Foudy had two assists in his season debut. Jakub Voracek and Jack Roslovic also had two assists each for Columbus, which has won three of four.
Artemi Panarin scored for New York (3-2-1), extending his point streak to six games, the longest by a Rangers player to start a season since Marian Gaborik’s eight-game streak in 2009-10.
Panarin leads the NHL with 12 points (four goals, eight assists).
Jaroslav Halak made 16 saves in his second start of the season.
Panarin scored with one second left on a 5-on-3 to cut the Blue Jackets lead to 3-1 at 18:44 of the second period.
Robinson made it 4-1 at 14:13 of the third period, deflecting Erik Gudbranson‘s shot from above the right face-off circle. Johnson scored 44 seconds later to give Columbus a 5-1 lead.
Werenski gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 17:54 of the first period, scoring from below the right face-off circle.
Peeke made it 2-0 with a wrist shot off the rush from the right circle at 1:42 of the second period.
Chinakhov extended the lead to 3-0 at 9:00 of the second with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
The Rangers played most of the game with 11 forwards because Filip Chytil left the game with an upper-body injury 1:32 into the first period.
Columbus played most of the final two periods with five defensemen after Nick Blankenburg left with an upper-body injury after playing one shift in the second period.