Rangers get offense in gear, Jonathan Quick shuts door in victory over Red Wings

DETROIT — The Rangers continue to play like world-beaters on the road, even as they can’t score, much less win, at home.

On Friday night, they were up against the Detroit Red Wings, who, like them, are celebrating their centennial season in the NHL. Before the game, the Red Wings commemorated the dawn of their 1950s dynasty, which started with a double-overtime win in Game 7 of the 1950 Stanley Cup Final against the Rangers.

This game played out a little differently, though.

Artemi Panarin, so desperate to break out of his offensive funk that he shaved his head before Thursday’s practice, had a goal and two assists. Will Cuylle’s power-play goal ended a five-game drought for the man-advantage. Rookie Noah Laba, a suburban Detroit kid, scored. Even Alexis Lafreniere, who entered the game with only one goal on 32 shots, got a goal as the Rangers beat the Red Wings, 4-1, at Little Caesars Arena.

The victory lifted the Rangers (7-6-2) to 7-1-1 on the road.

“We battled hard,’’ said goaltender Jonathan Quick, who had 32 saves. “This is a tough building. That’s a really good team. The power play was going tonight, the PK was great. They’ve got a lot of dangerous guys that we did a good job of trying to limit their chances and clearing out rebounds, everything like that. So just a great road win, and looking forward to taking this momentum back home.’’

They will face the Islanders on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in the first of four meetings this season. Getting their first home win of the season against their rivals no doubt would feel really good.

What felt really good Friday was seeing Panarin, who’d been pointless in six straight games, break out, and seeing the power play connect after entering on a 1-for-17 skid, and then seeing Lafreniere set up Laba’s goal and then score one of his own.

Coach Mike Sullivan certainly was happy to see Panarin have a big game.

“For sure, it is [good],’’ Sullivan said. “You know, our best players are our best players. And that’s an important element of the game tonight. These guys, they care a lot. I’ve been saying that for a while now. They care a lot. And you know, it hasn’t been from a lack of effort that we haven’t generated the offense from a goal-scoring standpoint. I think they’re very capable. And they showed that tonight.’’

In the locker room, Panarin looked like a man who’d had a great weight lifted off his shoulders.

“I feel good, obviously,’’ he said. “I mean, even if you generate every night some [scoring chances], you still feel good when you have at least one [goal]. So especially in my situation, yeah, I feel good now.’’

Panarin looked lighter and quicker on his skates and seemed more authoritative with the puck. He said he had his skates sharpened differently, which might have made a difference in his skating, but also said he played more freely than he had.

“I was thinking, probably, less,’’ he said. “Just trying to play my game and not chip in every puck. Yeah, I just felt more comfortable  with the puck.’’

He was asked if perhaps he’d been thinking too much in trying to adhere to Sullivan’s strong defensive system, which calls for players to dump the puck in and forecheck hard.

“Yeah, that’s true,’’ he said. “I still shoot. I can find in that system some holes where I can play different a little bit, find passes to the middle, all that stuff. Yeah, I’ve got to do just like I usually do.’’

Cuylle’s power-play goal, which opened the scoring at 6:46 of the first period, seemed to do wonders for the team’s psyche, Sullivan said.

“I thought that was a big aspect of helping our top guys, even in their five-on-five play,’’ Sullivan said. “We’ve talked about that for a number of weeks now, in just the correlation when they can feel it on the power play, I think it carries over to the five-on-five play. I thought those guys had a strong game for us.’’

Notes & quotes: Jaroslav Chmelar played only 6:27 in his NHL debut but had a fight with Travis Hamonic. “He looked like he knew what he was doing,’’ Sullivan said. Chmelar’s parents made it over from Czechia and were in the stands.

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.