NEW YORK — First, the Rangers swept a New Year’s weekend home-and-home series against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Then they beat two of the best players in the world, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
So things already are coming in twos in 2022 for the Blueshirts, whose latest achievement came on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, where they beat McDavid, Draisaitl and the Oilers, 4-1.
The victory sent them off in style on a five-game road trip that begins in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
The Rangers improved to 22-8-4, while the Oilers (18-13-2) have lost 10 of their past 12 games, including one in overtime to the Islanders on Saturday.
The Rangers are now tied with the Capitals for most points in the NHL (48).
The Rangers led 2-1 entering the third period, then went on a power play 2:20 in when the Oilers’ Ryan McLeod was called for tripping Greg McKegg.
The Oilers paid for the transgression at 3:32 when a long shot by Adam Fox was tipped by Chris Kreider and appeared to be stopped by goaltender Mikko Koskinen.
But the puck slowly trickled between Koskinen’s legs to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead. It was Kreider’s 20th goal of the season.
Jacob Trouba was called for a high stick that gave the Oilers a power play midway through the third but the Rangers survived it thanks to a big glove save on McDavid by Alexandar Georgiev.
The clincher came at 14:11 when Ryan Strome’s pass attempt went in off the skate of the Oilers’ Tyson Barrie to make it 4-1.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead 5:25 into the first period behind an impressive hustle play from Strome.
Strome charged behind the net, where he took the puck away from Koskinen as the Oilers’ goaltender tried to gain control of it.
Then Strome whipped the puck to Alex Lafreniere, who was charging into the slot alone and fired the puck past Koskinen.
It was the second game in a row Lafreniere played with Strome and Barclay Goodrow, part of the line shuffle necessitated by Artemi Panarin landing on the COVID-19 list shortly before Sunday’s game against the Lightning.
Georgiev was sharp for the Rangers early in the game in his return to net after Igor Shesterkin faced Tampa Bay on Sunday.
There was an amusing moment in the opening period when McKegg found himself in the Edmonton net behind Koskinen, who would not budge from in front of him, denying him an exit route.
So McKegg simply shoved Koskinen from behind and out of the way as a referee observed the scene.
The Oilers were 0-11-2 this season when trailing after the first period, so that did not bode well for the visitors.
Both teams had chances early in the second, but the Rangers scored first, making it 2-0 at 3:49 when Lafreniere skated down the right wing and made a perfect pass to Goodrow, who beat Koskinen stick side.
So with a goal and an assist, Lafreniere was making the most of his shot among the top six forwards.
It appeared the Oilers had gotten within one when Kyle Turris’ shot headed for the net and he raised his arms in triumph. But the puck skittered across the goal mouth and out of harm’s way.
Mika Zibanejad had a chance to make it 3-0, but his shot bounded off the crossbar. The Rangers also failed to get off a shot on goal on a three-on-one break.
The Oilers made them pay at 14:00 when McLeod tipped in a nifty crossing pass by Tyler Benson to make it 3-2.
The second period was a spirited, back-and-forth affair, including McDavid doing McDavid things. He had four shots on goal in the second period alone and five overall as of the second intermission.
But overall, the Rangers did what they had to do to keep him and Draisaitl from doing damage.
