Mika Zibanejad’s six-point game gives New York Rangers dominant win vs. Flyers on wild day

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Of all the wild days the New York Rangers have had in first half of the 2021 season, Wednesday ranks near the top.

It started with David Quinn postponing his morning availability with the media, with the team later announcing that the head coach and three members of his staff — Jacques Martin, David Oliver and Greg Brown — would enter COVID-19 protocol and miss the game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

AHL Hartford coach Kris Knoblauch stepped in to replace Quinn, with Hartford assistant Gord Murphy and Rangers associate general manager Chris Drury completing the on-the-fly staff.

Then the Rangers proceeded to utterly dominate the lifeless Flyers, turning in the most lopsided — and surprising — win of the season with a 9-0 beatdown at Madison Square Garden.

Their overwhelming effort was aided by the return of forward Pavel Buchnevich and defenseman Adam Fox, who missed Monday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Flyers while on the NHL’s COVID list. But that was the only game they’d miss, with both cleared to play roughly two hours before Wednesday’s puck drop.

Rangers center Mika Zibanejad (93) celebrates his power-play goal at 14:29 of the second period against Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Carter Hart (79) at Madison Square Garden.

 (Photo: Bruce Bennett/USA TODAY Sports)

Buchnevich posted four points, including two goals, while Fox had the primary assist on a heat-seeking pass to Brendan Lemieux for the first goal of the game. But the true star of the night was Mika Zibanejad.

Last year’s leading goal-scorer managed just three goals through the first 27 games of the season. He doubled that total with a hat trick Wednesday.

All three of Zibanejad’s goals came during a runaway second period in which the Rangers (12-12-4) scored seven. He had one at even strength, one on the power play and one shorthanded in a breakout performance that also featured three assists for a total of six points. That tied Bryan Trottier’s NHL record for most points in a period.

Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Filip Chytil also scored, with Panarin, Trouba and Ryan Strome each notching two points in the game.

Zibanejad wasn’t the only player to bust out of a slump.

On Tuesday, Quinn announced that he would be going to back to Alexandar Georgiev after two consecutive starts in which the goalie had to be pulled early.

The 25-year-old made 26 saves for the shutout, including a few high-difficulty stops that should help build his confidence back up. The biggest highlight came on a sprawling second-period save on Nolan Patrick, just moments before Zibanejad’s first goal.

Knoblauch, 42, earned the win in his first NHL head-coaching experience. He’s coached the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 34-25-6-5 record in two seasons with the team.

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network.

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