Rangers’ ‘awesome’ Alexis Lafreniere may be breaking out

NHL

By Mollie Walker

Alexis Lafreniere hasn’t deigned to acknowledge his success this season.

Why would the most heavily scrutinized former first-overall pick do so when all he’s heard throughout his first four NHL seasons is how much of a letdown he’s been?

The 22-year-old has quietly pieced together the kind of start to a season that can only be considered the beginning of a breakout year.

It sure looked as such Sunday night when Lafreniere scored a go-ahead goal, a game-tying goal with 11 seconds remaining in regulation and then the lone-standing shootout tally to extend the Rangers’ win streak to three games.

“It’s awesome,” Mika Zibanejad told The Post after the Rangers’ 4-3 shootout win over the Blue Jackets. “I know, just from everyone, just hearing and everything, all the pressure that’s been on him. Being a first-overall, just hearing that constantly. You get compared with other people, you get compared to other people, compared to other guys in your draft or whatever.

“Just seeing what he’s done this year has been a lot of fun. I’m really happy for him, too. You can tell he’s just playing. He’s doing the things that [are the] reason why everyone wanted him. I think he’s finding the balance and the confidence too with when he’s making a play and when he’s not.

“All the plays that we can talk about, I think the hard work that he puts into every shift and into every game — that’s really impressive. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed watching him play.”

Lafreniere extended his point streak to four games, over which he’s collected three goals and four assists, when he buried a feed from Vincent Trocheck in the second period for the 2-1 lead.

After the Blue Jackets scored twice in the span of 19 seconds to regain the lead, however, Lafreniere capitalized while the Rangers had the six-on-five advantage with an empty net.

He tapped in a dish from Chris Kreider to send the game to overtime.

Head coach Peter Laviolette then opted to send Lafreniere out third in the shootout order.

Lafreniere ripped a ridiculous backhanded shot past Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins to secure the two points for the Rangers.

“I think anytime you can have an impact in a game you can gain confidence from that,” Laviolette said. “It’s not just him, too. I thought [Vincent Trocheck] in the middle was unbelievable. Obviously, [Artemi Panarin] is playing terrific with his game right now. When they’re on the ice, good things are happening all the time. Sometimes that’s easy to feed into when you’re in the offensive zone, you’re generating chances, you start to feel it a little bit.”