The Rangers left New York just two weeks ago for an early-season road trip disappointed after being defeated by the Nashville Predators in ugly fashion.

It didn’t take them long to put that in the past, though, as they came out flying and dominated all five games of what will be their longest road trip of the season. They notched wins over the Kraken, Flames, Oilers, Canucks, and Jets to record the first 5-0 road trip in franchise history.

“Any time you can grab a record like that it’s pretty special,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “This franchise has been around for a long time, so that’s a big record. The fact that we were able to take on five games and push through them with five wins and head home is exciting.”

The Rangers outscored opponents 17-7 over that span and they’ve been absolutely dominant on special teams. New York’s top-ranked power play went a combined 7-for-16 over that stretch and their PK has killed off 17 of their last 18 shorthanded situations.

Those units were especially clutch in Monday’s overtime win over the Jets.

Chris Kreider deflected an Adam Fox shot for the game-tying goal with the man advantage late in the third period, and then the Rangers killed off a huge 4-on-3 situation early on in the extra frame.

Mika Zibanejad eventually fired home the game-winner late in overtime off a one-time feed from Artemi Panarin, who continued his early season dominance with three more points (one goal, two assists) on his birthday.

“That one felt good,” Zibanejad said postgame. “We can say it now, we won every one. Everyone wants to go home but we were determined to finish it off the right way and I thought we did.”

“It’s pretty amazing,” Laviolette added. “It feels like we’ve been on the road forever, for the guys to throw in an effort like that on the last one and to come back was pretty amazing. We’re really happy with it, that’s a great win.”

There was some concern that it may take this team some time to find their footing under a new head coach after recording just one win during the six game preseason, but it looks like they’ve established their identity early on.

The Rangers found themselves in back-to-back close games in Vancouver and Winnipeg, but they were able to pull out two big points each time with the help of their special teams units.

Captain Jacob Trouba is certainly happy with how the team has responded during the winning streak.

“Whenever there's a new coaching staff you want to try and build and find that trust of your identity of who you are and what you're bringing every night. That Nashville game was something that we still had to figure out what makes us us,” the scrappy defenseman said. “We did a good job of it during this road trip and we’re kind of figuring out the right recipe for us to win games.”

The Rangers (7-2-0), who currently sit atop the Metropolitan Division, will look to keep the momentum going as they finally return home to take on the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

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