was right in the middle of it again<\/a> with his second multigoal effort in four games, which also extended his point streak to five games \u2014 the longest of his seven-year NHL career.\u00a0<\/p>\nDylan Garand makes a save on Anthony Cirelli during the Rangers\u2019 win over the Lightning. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
The 2020 No. 1 pick is tied for second in the NHL with seven tallies through the first eight contests of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in February, however, the Rangers picked up a hidden gem off waivers in Tye Kartye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old has been a relentless presence on the ice for the Rangers since he arrived, but he\u2019s off to an especially impactful start to his first full season in a red, white and blue sweater.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each of Lafreni\u00e8re\u2019s two first-period goals doesn\u2019t happen without the heads-up plays made by Kartye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After his pressure on the forecheck beat Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman and allowed the Rangers to swarm the net, Kartye \u2014 from behind the net \u2014 backhanded the puck to Lafreni\u00e8re in the slot for the 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though it didn\u2019t compare to the backhanded lob that Kartye flipped to a streaking Lafreni\u00e8re for a breakaway goal later in the first period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re scores his second goal on Andrei Vasilevskiy during the Rangers\u2019 win over the Lightning. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good [to score], it feels good to win, too, especially at home after last year,\u201d Lafreni\u00e8re said. \u201cIt feels great and the crowd was great again today. It\u2019s a good feeling right now in the room.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rangers\u2019 third line is the only one head coach Mike Sullivan hasn\u2019t touched yet this season, and it\u2019s evident why.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After some heavy play along the walls to maintain possession with his linemates, Will Cuylle registered his third goal of the season as the lone goal scorer in the second period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Deflecting a Sean Durzi shot from the top of the zone, the 24-year-old gave his team a 3-1 lead entering the second intermission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get a lot of D-zone starts against top lines,\u201d Sullivan said of the third line. \u201cThey defend hard for us, but there\u2019s an offensive dimension to their line \u2014 all three of those guys. I think that\u2019s an important element of having a third line that\u2019s capable of playing both sides of the puck and not just a \u2018checking line.\u2019 \u2026 I think the last two or three games, their game is at another level. It\u2019s almost like it\u2019s been an \u2018aha!\u2019 moment for what they\u2019re capable of. \u2026 We have no problem putting them out against anyone, and we know that they can get the job done\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lightning went on a heater after giving up five goals to the Rangers in their season opener…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[11555,11558,4823,385,99,134324],"class_list":["post-881896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alexis-lafreniere","tag-mika-zibanejad","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-will-cuylle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}