If this were a prize fight, the referee would’ve stopped it early. In what amounted to a walk in the park, the Rangers skated to an easy 5-1 win over the struggling Devils before 16,650 at The Prudential Center in Newark.

The Rangers rolled to their ninth consecutive win – matching their longest winning streak since 2015-16. On Saturday afternoon, when they visit the Flyers, they’ll look to tie the franchise record (10) for a season. That was last done in 1972-73. The 1939-40 Rangers originally set the franchise mark on their way to winning the Stanley Cup.

Lafreniere leads The Way

Alexis Lafreniere led the way with two goals. It was his second multi-goal of the season. His pair of tallies were the 15th and 16th goals of the season. He’s three away from tying his career high established in 2021-22.

Lafreniere’s quietly had a good year. He has four points (2-2-4) over his last three games. In 57 contests, he has 16 goals and 19 assists for 35 points this season. With 25 games remaining, he needs five points to set a new career high. He posted 39 points (16-23-39) in 2022-23.

“We’ve played well against two really good teams. I think we’re staying focused and try to win every game and play as a team. That’s what we did tonight,” Lafreniere said about their recent stretch.

Blueshirts kill off Rempe major

Just over two minutes into the game, Matt Rempe was given a match penalty for a dirty hit that caught Nathan Bastian right in the head, sending him down. Rempe’s size didn’t help on the hit. Bastian was lower and was a dead duck. He left for repairs.

Following Jonas Siegenthaler exchanging blows with Rempe for additional roughing minors, the Devils had a golden opportunity on a five-minute power play. However, the Blueshirts successfully killed off the Rempe major.

Igor Shesterkin made a few key stops while shorthanded. He denied Jack Hughes twice and made saves on Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt. The Devils had been in a funk on the man-advantage. They’ve really struggled for a while on special teams. It was an area the Rangers exploited.

Zibanejad gets an unassisted tally

Curtis Lazar was sent off for slashing Shesterkin with under 11 minutes left in the first period. It didn’t take the Rangers long to get the game’s first goal. Mika Zibanejad got an unassisted tally to give them a 1-0 lead.

On an offensive draw, a loose puck took a favorable bounce right to Zibanejad. He then had his slap shot bank in off the skate of Devils defenseman John Marino past Nico Daws for a gift on the power play.

That gave Zibanejad power-play goals in two of the last three games. Since posting a goal and two assists in a win over Montreal on Feb. 15, he has a four-game point streak (3-3-6).

Lafreniere gets a gift to increase the lead

Following some timely saves from Shesterkin to keep the Devils off the scoreboard, Lafreniere got a gift to increase the lead. Leading up to it, Artemi Panarin was forced to hook Tyler Toffoli from behind to put the Devils on a power play. However, Erik Haula evened it up by slashing Adam Fox 57 seconds later.

During a four-on-four, Hischier won a faceoff back to Luke Hughes. But he lost control of the puck right in front of his net. That allowed Lafreniere to pick it up and beat Daws for another unassisted goal to put the Rangers up 2-0 after one period.

Trouba Blows Up Bastian

Jacob Trouba blew up a leaning Bastian with a clean open ice hit that sent him flying to the ice. He immediately put Trouba in a headlock, followed by the gloves coming off. The dust-up didn’t last long. Bastian received an extra two minutes for roughing. It was pretty tame.

On the five-on-four, the Rangers were unable to get anything going. The top unit overstayed their shift and fired blanks. It was a wasted opportunity. At this stage, they shouldn’t be doing that. The second unit is capable of contributing. They should’ve been out for at least the remainder.

Kreider increases the lead

Still leading by two, the Rangers used some smart play in transition to put the Devils down by three. Shesterkin made a good outlet pass up for Panarin. With the Devils caught, Panarin found a cutting Chris Kreider, who was wide open for an easy put away that increased the lead to 3-0 with 10:07 remaining in the second period.

That allowed Kreider to stay hot. He has five goals and an assist in his last four games. The goal was his 29th of the season, putting him within one of reaching the 30-goal mark for the third time in his career. He’s done it in each of the last two seasons.

Lafreniere gets his second of the game

Following a successful penalty kill of an Erik Gustafsson tripping minor, the Rangers made the Devils look bad in the final minute of the period. They looked like they were standing still on Lafreniere’s second of the game.

It started with Panarin moving the puck across for Vincent Trocheck. With the Devils scrambling, he passed to Lafreniere in the middle. He then skated through untouched before burying his 16th past Daws to make it 4-0 with 40 seconds left.

As nice as it is to see Lafreniere scoring goals, that was all about the lousy defensive coverage of the Devils. They didn’t make an attempt to check him. It’s remarkable that a day later, Lindy Ruff still has a job. How? They look like they’ve given up.

Artistry leads to Trocheck goal

In the third period, there was really only one thing left to determine. Would Shesterkin get the shutout? He came very close.

Even with the Rangers sitting on a four-goal lead against the inept Devils, it was only a matter of time before they put the exclamation mark on their ninth straight win. Some artistry led to Trocheck scoring his 20th goal of the season.

With the Devils pressing for offense, Gustafsson banked a pass off the boards to send Panarin and Trocheck in on a two-on-one. Panarin patiently waited before sending a perfect pass across for a Trocheck finish on the doorstep. That made it 5-0 with 5:31 left in regulation.

Over three minutes later, Shesterkin’s shutout was no more. Hughes got his 18th from Toffoli with 2:07 remaining. That was it for the Devils. They dropped their second straight game. They’re five out of the wildcard and seven behind the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

For the Rangers, they continued their torrid play. They’re up to 8-0 in February. They’ll look to tie the franchise record tomorrow afternoon at Philadelphia.