Rangers Defeats the Red Wings, Quick Returns, and Perreault Gets Hats

By Daniel Feuerstein | New York, NY | April 4th, 2026

The New York Rangers returned to Madison Square Garden for an Afternoon game against the Detroit Red Wings, after a poor faceoff loss that led to the Canadiens taking the victory on Thursday night. This was a back-to-back home game for the Easter Weekend. That means Jonathan Quick gets the start in this one as the Rangers came out hard and scored timely goals to get a positive result as the end of the regular season is coming to a close. The Rangers defeated the Red Wings by a final score of four to one.

Game Recap

The Rangers win the far corner, digging for the puck along with two Red Wings defenders inside the offensive zone. When the puck was freed, Adam Sykora collected it and sent the puck back out toward the point as Vladislav Gavrikov accepted the pass. Wound up and took a shot on net, but cutting across the front of the net was Jaroslav Chmelar, as he used the blade of his stick to redirect the puck past John Gibson to open the scoring at 13:19 of the first period.

Gabe Perreault’s First NHL Hat Trick

Since being drafted by the Rangers out of Boston College in the 2023 NHL Draft, Gabe Perreault has been a touted prospect who has done it all. Winning two gold medals in the IIHF World Junior Championships for Team USA, and his father is a former NHL player, Yannick Perreault, who has played for multiple NHL teams, including the Montreal Canadiens, as the Sherbrook, Quebec, native joined a long list of Quebec-born players to don that Red Jersey with the Blue and white hope going across the chest. Now his son is starting his NHL career, and he has finally earned his first NHL Hat Trick.

Perreault’s first goal came in the second period as the Rangers went up the ice to set up down low. Mika Zibanejad skated with the puck down the far boards and left it for Matthew Robertson trailing the play. Zibanejad would skate behind the net, then the near side of the icing line as he waited for Robertson to make a pass. When the play started, Zibanejad saw Gabe Perreault skating towards the inside of the far faceoff circle, gave Perrault the puck, and snapped one past Gibson at 15:59 of the second period.

The second goal came from the power play, as the second unit came on the ice. Adam Fox retrieved the puck after the Red Wings cleared it out of their zone. Fox left it for Jonny Brodzinski, who gave the puck to Perrault and started to rush it up the ice. When he reached the blueline, Perreault made the pass to Brodzinsky as he entered the zone first. With Perrault going down the slot, Brodzinsky made a hard crossice pass back to Perrault and forced Gibson to show an open net to allow a redirection goal at 7:13 of the third period.

The Red Wings pulled Gibson to get an extra attacker on the ice, but the magic moment happened when the Rangers finally got the puck out of their zone. Fox was able to chip it to J.T. Miller, went on a two-on-one rush up the ice, and had Perrault on his right. Just a chip shot for Gabe Perreault, who scored an empty netter and his first NHL Hat Trick at 18:16 of the third period. The future of the Rangers is bright with Perreault showing what he can do, and now he has finally earned a three-goal night for the first time in his young NHL Career.

“I was kind of fighting it the first couple of shifts, so I didn’t necessarily think I was going to finish like that. But, you know, once we started generating chances and I got that first one. And the second, you know, you’re obviously a little bit thinking about the third one, but I’m taking it shift by shift. And lucky enough, I was able to get out there and get the third one. You’ve got to keep black tape on your blade for the time being,” said Gabe Perreault

Jonathan Quick Returns

After suffering an upper-body injury and missing several games, which allowed Dylan Garand to play two games, Jonathan Quick returned for the early afternoon game. He was fabulous in the net as he looked rejuvenated. He was having an amazing game, and it looked like he was going to earn his 66th career shutout, until the Red Wings ended it with a goal from David Perron at 19:27 of the third period. But the win for Quick was great to see from a future Hall of Famer. He made 31 saves out of 32 shots on goal.

Mike Sullivan’s Comments

“I’ll tell you where I get satisfaction when our guys compete hard and, uh, and we build a team game. You know, when we play with the right intentions, with the right energy, with the competitive spirit. Um, bring the passion, the fire, all of that stuff. You know, I think. As a coach, I think that’s a rewarding experience, you know, to watch your team go through a game like today. I thought we had a great team game. I thought it was strong. I thought we competed on both sides of the puck. I thought we controlled a lot of play throughout the course of the game. I thought our penalty kill tonight was great. I thought they were on point. Very much a pressure kill, which is what we’ve been trying to get to. Hopefully, our guys can build some confidence off of that, and we can continue to get better there. For me, the biggest thing is, you know, every day we come to the rink, let’s try to become the best version of ourselves. And if we continue to do that, we’re all going to grow and get better. And that’s a rewarding experience for a coach.”

ROCKIN’ ROOKS: New York rookies scored all four goals for the Rangers in today’s game (Gabe Perreault – 3, Jaroslav Chmelar – 1). Since Mar. 2, Rangers rookies have scored 17 goals and have registered 38 points. In that span, the Rangers led the league in both goals and points recorded by rookies. This season, the Rangers’ 80 points recorded by rookies are tied for fourth in the league, and their 31 goals scored by rookies rank sixth.

POINT STREAKS: Four different Rangers skaters extended their point streaks in today’s game: Adam Fox – 6GP (2G-8A), Mika Zibanejad – 3 GP (1G-2A), Jonny Brodzinski – 2 GP (2A), Vladislav Gavrikov – 2 GP (2A).

GABE PERREAULT: Recorded his first career hat trick, becoming the fourth Rangers rookie in the last 30 years to score a hat trick and one of five NHL rookies this season to have recorded one. His three multi-goal games this season are tied for the second-most games among all NHL rookies. Since Mar. 2, he leads all NHL rookies in points (17) and is tied for the lead in goals (7).

ADAM FOX:  Extended his point streak to six-straight games (2G-8A), the second-longest active streak in the league. He collected his 15th multi-point game of the season and his 105th as a Ranger, tying James Patrick for the third-most multi-point games among Rangers defensemen in franchise history. He leads all Rangers skaters in assists (40) and ranks fifth in points (47), and since Mar. 5, his 16 assists rank fourth in the league.

JONATHAN QUICK: Posted his 410th career NHL win. This season, he earned two wins against the Red Wings and has posted a .963 save percentage against them.

ADAM SYKORA: Recorded his first career NHL assist on Chmelar’s goal.

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