Rangers hope Pavel Dorofeyev is heating up

Every time Pavel Dorofeyev scores this season, the hope for the Rangers is that this will be the goal that finally gets him going.

Maybe Saturday in Seattle will be the one.

Dorofeyev scored what proved to be the winning goal in the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Kraken in the opener of their four-game trip to the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.

It came on the heels of the 26-year-old Russian’s power-play goal on Thursday against the Flyers at Madison Square Garden and gave Dorofeyev goals in consecutive games for the first time this season.

It also was his fourth goal in six games, suggesting that Dorofeyev, who scored 37 goals for the Vegas Golden Knights last season, finally might be heating up.

The Rangers have been waiting for Dorofeyev to catch fire and start scoring in bunches this season. It has occurred in a trickle, though, not the flood the team had hoped for.

Dorofeyev’s goal against Seattle was his sixth in 18 games, which put him on pace to score 28 this season, well short of what the Rangers expected to get from him.

Coach Mike Sullivan has been trying to find the right combination to unlock Dorofeyev. He started him on the second line with J.T. Miller and Oliver Bjorkstrand — who soon was replaced by Tye Kartye — and for a while he tried him on the first line with Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere.

After dropping him to the third line with Will Cuylle and Noah Laba in the third period Thursday, Sullivan started Dorofeyev on a reconstituted third line with Eeli Tolvanen and Cuylle against the Kraken.

“Obviously, we’re trying to find combinations where we can develop some chemistry,’’ Sullivan said after Thursday’s game. “It’s been a few games now [for Dorofeyev on the top line]. We just felt . . . we need more from our top guys, and so we made that switch.”

Dorofeyev has hit so many goalposts and crossbars this season that Sullivan and the Rangers — and Dorofeyev himself — believe that as long as the chances keep coming, his luck will change and those shots off the iron will start going into the net.

“I just gotta keep focus . . . and keep trying, again and again,” he said Thursday. “And hopefully it’s gonna come [off the] post and in at some point.”

Getting Dorofeyev in a blockbuster trade on draft day during the summer was a stunning coup for Rangers general manager Chris Drury, who gave up two first-round picks and a third-rounder for him and immediately signed him to a seven-year, $77 million contract.

Dorofeyev gave the Rangers an element they didn’t have — a pure goal-scorer, one who had 32 goals for Vegas in 2024-25 and 37 last season, plus another 12 in the playoffs.

And while it was understood that he wouldn’t have Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner spoon-feeding him high-danger chances anymore, the Blueshirts were counting on Dorofeyev to fill the net regardless of who his linemates were.

But before these last two games, it just hadn’t happened.

Early on, it was easier to be patient, as the Rangers won four of their first five games. But now, in the wake of the season-ending injury to star goaltender Igor Shesterkin, consistent scoring from Dorofeyev is crucial.

Without Shesterkin giving them a chance to win low-scoring games on a nightly basis, the Rangers are going to need to find other ways to win. One way would be to score more goals.

Entering Saturday, the Rangers had scored 51 goals in 17 games, and their average of 3.00 goals per game ranked 21st in the 32-team league. They need to increase their goal production, and getting more from Dorofeyev certainly would help with that.

Dorofeyev’s goal Saturday technically was an even-strength goal, coming two seconds after a Rangers power play had expired. It gave the Blueshirts a 4-0 lead before former Ranger Kaapo Kakko scored 1:50 into the third period. That started a run of three straight Kraken goals that made the Rangers sweat out the final 4:58 before clinching their third straight win.

Notes & quotes: Goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who had been out of action since the opening game of the season because of a lower-body injury, was activated off injured reserve and started Saturday, making his regular-season debut for the Rangers. He made 25 saves . . . Kartye, whom the Rangers claimed off waivers from the Kraken in February, scored in his first return to Seattle . . . Rookie defenseman Alberts Smits was a late scratch with an upper-body injury. Matthew Robertson drew in and made his season debut.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.