Artemi Panarin is enjoying the best season of his career and is on the verge of reaching a rare milestone for the New York Rangers.
Panarin will attempt to reach 100 points for the first time in his career Tuesday night when the Rangers host the Philadelphia Flyers.
Panarin is attempting to become the first Rangers player with 100 points since Jaromir Jagr set a team record with 123 during the 2005-06 season. Jagr was the sixth player in team history to reach 100 points, and his record-setting season occurred when the Rangers ended a streak of seven non-playoff seasons.
Panarin's season is occurring while New York tries to hold a one-point lead over the Carolina Hurricanes atop the Metropolitan Division lead and attempt to win its first division title since 2014-15.
The Rangers (47-20-4) are 7-2-0 in their past nine since losing three of four (1-2-1) from Feb. 25-March 4. New York also is 18-4-1 since a 5-2 home loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 26.
Panarin has 12 goals and 19 assists in his past 18 contests and is coming off consecutive multi-goal games. Panarin followed up a hat trick in Thursday's 5-3 win at Boston with two goals Saturday, raising his season total to 43 in a 4-3 shootout victory over the visiting Florida Panthers. He also had the deciding goal in the shootout.
Panarin scored New York's final two goals in regulation, including the tying goal with 3:42 remaining. It came a mere 42 seconds after Florida took a 3-2 lead.
"He had another monster game," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "He's so dangerous. He's leaving everything out on the ice. He comes back to the bench and he's completely gassed. He gives it all every shift. He's playing his heart out."
The Rangers' Vincent Trocheck added three assists Saturday and Adam Fox also scored in New York's 22nd comeback win.
"That's a big win," Trocheck said. "Two of the better teams in the East. These games are huge late in the season, get you geared up for the playoffs. This is the style of hockey that we're going to need to play."
Philadelphia (36-27-9) is attempting to hold on to third place in the Metropolitan and heads into the third meeting with the Rangers sitting two points ahead of the Washington Capitals.
Since winning four straight from Feb. 6-12, the Flyers are 7-8-3 in their past 18 games. The Flyers are concluding a seven-game stretch of playing the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bruins (twice), Florida Panthers and Rangers and are 2-3-1 so far.
Philadelphia followed its 3-2 win over Boston on Saturday with a 4-1 home loss to the Panthers on Sunday. The Flyers gave up the first three goals before Bobby Brink scored a power-play goal in the third period and took the loss despite outshooting Florida 33-15 thanks to some defensive miscues leading to goals and a power play that went 1-for-5.
"You don't have time to breathe right now, the playoff race is so tight," Philadelphia's Ryan Poehling said. "We have so many games in such a short amount of days and that's kind of a good thing, too. We're playing well, you just kind of forget about it and move on to the next one."
The Rangers are 8-0-1 in the past nine encounters against the Flyers.
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