Rangers score six goals, beat Chicago as Chytil scores a pair

CHICAGO – No one is going to be terribly impressed by a win over the last-place team in the entire NHL. But when you are the Rangers, and you are in the hole that they have been in for the last month-and-a-half, you don’t apologize for any victories, no matter how you get them, or who they come against.

So the Rangers will happily accept Sunday afternoon’s 6-2 win over Chicago in the United Center, especially given that this is a team that beat them in Madison Square Garden Dec. 9, and considering the victory was just the Blueshirts’ seventh in the last 22 games.

It was achieved without winger Chris Kreider, who missed the game with what the Rangers said was an upper-body injury – he missed three games with back spasms last month – and it came with third-string goalie Louis Domingue between the pipes. Igor Shesterkin is still on injured reserve, and Jonathan Quick had played Saturday in the loss to Washington.

Domingue, called up Wednesday from AHL Hartford, made 25 saves to earn his second win for the Rangers in two seasons.

The red-hot Filip Chytil had two goals – giving him four in the last four games – and Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren and Brett Berard each had two assists as the Rangers (18-20-1) earned a split of the two-game road trip. They return home for games Tuesday and Thursday at the Garden against Dallas and New Jersey, respectively, before going back on the road next weekend.

Jonny Brodzinski, inserted to the lineup in Kreider’s place, scored the Rangers’ first goal, tying the game, 1-1, at 15:12 of the first period, after Chicago’s Tyler Bertuzzi had opened the scoring at 5:37. That goal came after a Rangers turnover in their own zone, and was assisted by second-year star Connor Bedard, who extended his point streak to seven games.

Once Brodzinski scored, the Rangers suddenly looked more assertive and started to dominate possession against the hapless hosts, who fell to 13-25-2. Three minutes and 10 seconds later, defenseman Will Borgen, acquired in the Dec. 18 Kaapo Kakko trade, scored his first goal as a Ranger, to give the visitors the lead.

It was almost all Rangers after that. Chytil’s first goal, at 3:28 of the second period, made it 3-1, and Mika Zibanejad set up linemate Reilly Smith for a breakaway goal to make it 4-1 at 9:54.

For Zibanejad, who has been suffering through a miserable season, the assist was the 400th of his career, and gave him a modest three-game scoring streak.

Vincent Trocheck tipped in a shot by Artemi Panarin at 15:16 to make it 5-1. Alexis Lafreniere got a secondary assist on the goal, his first point in nine games. Things were easy for Domingue at that point, but Chicago defenseman Wyatt Kaiser did beat him over his catching glove hand at 18:00 for his first NHL goal.

Chytil’s second goal, a pinball shot by K’Andre Miller that was saved by Chicago goalie Arvid Soderblom but bounced off him, ricocheted off Chytil and went in, made it 6-2.