Artemi Panarin’s goal, three assists lift Rangers to wild road win in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two games, two excellent performances, two wins. And one happy Rangers coach.

“I feel good,’’ Gerard Gallant said after his team rolled over the Minnesota Wild, 7-3, on Thursday to spoil the Wild’s season opener at the Xcel Energy Center. “I mean, the guys played a really good game again tonight. They played hard, and it’s really nice to see the scoring getting spread out around our group.

“Kaapo [Kakko] scored a big goal tonight. Fil [Chytil] scored a big goal tonight going to the net. So you like to see stuff like that from our team.’’

Artemi Panarin was the offensive spark with a goal and three assists, and his centerman, Vincent Trocheck, scored his first goal as a Ranger. Their new right wing, Alexis Lafreniere, contributed two brilliant assists in the first period.

“The line was real good tonight,’’ Gallant said of the trio. “They played some great hockey and they made some great plays.’’

Coming off a 3-1 win on opening night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Rangers followed up with another complete effort. Chris Kreider had two goals and Adam Fox had a goal. Igor Shesterkin had 33 saves, including 15 in the first period when the Rangers took a 3-0 lead despite being outshot 15-8.

“That’s how we want to play,’’ said Fox. “It is only two games. Obviously, there’s 80 more to go [and] we want to keep it consistent. But yeah, it’s been good so far. Everyone’s contributing. And obviously you’re getting the same goaltending as usual.’’

The Rangers will conclude the two-game road trip Friday in Winnipeg against the Jets.

Talking at Thursday’s morning skate about playing with Panarin and Trocheck, Lafrenière said, “You know, you go up with them, they’re good players, they make plays. So, for me, it’s just switching from left side to right side, and trying to get a little used to it. And after a couple of shifts, a couple of games, I already feel more comfortable.’’

He looked pretty comfortable Thursday. With the Rangers leading 1-0 on a power-play goal by Kreider at 4:06 of the first period, Lafrenière took a pass from behind the net from Panarin, and sent a cross-slot pass to Fox, who was cutting to the net, for a goal that made it 2-0 at 16:03.

Then, with time running out in the period, Lafrenière retrieved a dump-in by Trocheck behind the net, and flicked a backhand pass to Panarin, who roofed a shot over Marc-Andre Fleury at 19:47 to put the Rangers up 3-0.

Mats Zuccarello scored on a power play to get Minnesota on the board at 7:45 of the second period, and the Wild had a chance to get back in the game when they had a five-on-three advantage for 1:22 midway through the period after Fox was sent off for tripping at 8:32 and Kreider was penalized for a high stick at 9:10. But the Rangers killed the two-man disadvantage, with captain Jacob Trouba playing the entire penalty, and Shesterkin making some big saves.

Chytil then scored his first goal of the season to make it 4-1, sweeping in the rebound of a shot by Fox at 16:54. Trocheck’s goal made it 5-1 at 4:18 of the third period, before the first of Matt Boldy’s goals pulled Minnesota within 5-2 at 5:16.

But 30 seconds later, almost before the fans had stopped cheering, Kakko silenced them with a brilliant goal in which he collected a loose puck in the corner, circled the net on his backhand, then attacked and slipped the puck under Fleury to make it 6-2. After Boldy’s second goal, Kreider deflected a K’Andre Miller shot past Fleury at 14:07 for his second goal.