Artemi Panarin scores 49th goal as Rangers beat Senators 4-0 to clinch Presidents' Trophy

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Rangers have been on a mission since falling to the New Jersey Devils in the opening round of the playoffs last spring. They responded by finishing with the NHL's best regular-season record.

Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist, Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, and the New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators 4-0 on Monday night to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy.

Jack Roslovic, Adam Fox and Alexis Lafreniere also scored and Chris Kreider had two assists as the Rangers won their league-best 55th game and finished with 114 points -- both franchise records -- and will have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

New York won for the fifth time in seven games and went 26-7-1 in their last 34 games. They previously won the Presidents’ Trophy in 1991-92, 1993-94 — when they won the Stanley Cup for only time since 1940 — and 2014-15.

“Obviously it's an accomplishment,'' Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. ”Now it's a quick turn of the page and we get ready for the real stuff."

Four teams — Washington, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — are still in contention to finish in the second wild card and meet the Rangers in the opening round of the postseason. The Rangers had 107 points last year but were eliminated in seven games in the first round by the second-place Devils.

“They've been there all year. The team played well. They competed hard,'' Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We're a group that feels like when they put their equipment on, they can win ... Now you're heading into why you did all that work, the first round of the playoffs."

Roslovic, acquired from Columbus on March 8, scored his third goal with the Rangers and ninth overall this season at 5:55 of the first, beating Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo by finishing off a 2-on-1 passing play with Kreider.

“It feels good. I'm glad to contribute,'' Roslovic said. ”It's a special time to be able to come in and be a helping hand."

Fox put the Rangers ahead 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 8:58 of the second. Fox finessed a pass from Kreider past Korpisalo for his 17th goal of the season with Kaapo Kakko – playing his 300th NHL game - in the penalty box for slashing. Fox has the most goals by a Rangers defenseman since Brian Leetch scored 21 in 2000-01.

“Knowing what was on the line tonight was a good way to end our season,'' Fox said. ”It's been a full team effort with everyone chipping in. We did a good job a bearing down tonight and the crowd was into it."

Panarin made it 3-0 with his 49th goal at 4:34 of the third. Panarin finished with 120 points — second-most in Rangers history to Jaromir Jagr's 123 in 2005-06 — and with points in a franchise-record 67 of his 82 games this season.

With the Garden crowd chanting “MVP, MVP" trying to exhort their star, Panarin had a chance to score his 50th goal with a late Rangers power-play but Korpisalo denied him twice. The 32-year-old Russian forward had seven shots on goal. He smiled when asked to assess his 120-point season and his 18 shot attempts in Monday's game.

“Multiple things, partners, coaching staff — the whole team,'' Panarin cited as reasons for his best statistical year. ”Pretty fun season. It's good to have that experience but there's no time to relax."

Lafreniere increased the lead to 4-0 with seven minutes remaining in the third with his 28th, concluding a pretty setup from Panarin and defenseman Erik Gustafsson.

Kreider finished with 75 points, including 39 goals, for the second-highest points total of his career.

Shesterkin won seven of his last nine starts to finish the regular season at 36-17-2. In 22 games since Feb. 12, the 28-year-old Russian netminder was 16-5-1 with four shutouts.

The Rangers finished 30-11-0 at home, winning 15 of their last 19 at Madison Square Garden. The 30 home wins tied the 1970-71 squad for most in franchise history.

The Senators will miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season. The last time Ottawa reached the postseason was in 2017 when they defeated the Rangers in six games in a second-round series.

“We gave them the first two goals. Take those two goals aside and it's a pretty good game,'' Senators interim coach Jacques Martin said. "They have a good team. We battled hard. When you play these good teams, you can't afford to give them freebies.”

UP NEXT:

Senators: Conclude their season at Boston on Tuesday night.

Rangers: Start playoffs at home

This story has been corrected to show Panarin had 18 shot attempts in the game.

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, third from left, celebrates with teammates after they shut out the Ottawa Senators in an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, center, celebrates with Jack Roslovic (96) and K'Andre Miller (79) after they shut out the Ottawa Senators in an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Rangers left wing Jimmy Vesey (26) skates between Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk (7) and defenseman Jake Sanderson (85) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Ottawa Senators left wing Jiri Smejkal (13) skates with the puck as he is pursued by New York Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller (79) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Ottawa Senators center Ridly Greig (71) checks New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck (16) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) stops a shot by Ottawa Senators left wing Parker Kelly (27) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Ottawa Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (70) stops a shot by New York Rangers left wing Alexis Lafrenière (13) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox (23) takes a shot for a goal as he is checked by Ottawa Senators left wing Dominik Kubalik (81) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Rangers center Jack Roslovic (96) celebrates his goal with Mika Zibanejad (93), Chris Kreider (20) and Braden Schneider (4) during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators Monday, April 15, 2024, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators moved Monday to enact a ban in Kansas on gender-affirming care for minors and bar state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender youth, brushing aside criticism that they were hurting the state's image.

The GOP-supermajority Kansas House expected to vote on overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto only hours after the Senate did on a 27-13 vote, exactly the required two-thirds margin. The vote in the House was expected to be close after LGBTQ+ rights advocates raised questions about whether the provision against promoting social transitioning is written broadly enough to apply to public school teachers who show empathy for transgender students.

Under the bill, social transitioning includes “the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress,” and the rule would apply to state workers who care for children. The measure doesn’t spell out what constitutes promoting it.

The bill is part of a broader push to roll back transgender rights from Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the U.S. Kansas would be the 25th state to restrict or ban such care for minors, and this week the South Carolina Senate expected to debate a similar measure that already has passed the state House.

“Unfortunately, in today’s society, the predator in particular is a woke health care system,” said Republican state Sen. Mark Steffen, a central Kansas anesthesiologist and pain management specialist.

Like other Republicans across the U.S., Steffen and other GOP lawmakers in Kansas argued that they're protecting children struggling with their gender identities from being pushed into health care that the lawmakers see as experimental and potentially harmful. But that puts them at odds with the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other major U.S. medical groups.

LGBTQ+ rights groups such as Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Kansas have stopped short of saying they would challenge the new law in court, but they've said they believe the provisions preventing state employees from advocating social transitioning violates their free speech rights. They've said that provision makes the Kansas law more sweeping than laws in other states.

Other critics argued that enacting such a ban sends a message that transgender residents aren't welcome. When Kelly vetoed a similar ban last year, she suggested that it would hurt the state's business climate.

“This is not the message we want to send to Americans about the welcoming opportunities that Kansas has,” said state Sen. Tom Holland, a northeastern Kansas Democrat.

About 300,000 youths ages 13 to 17 identify as transgender in the U.S., according to estimates by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research center at UCLA Law. It estimates that in Kansas, about 2,100 youths in that age group identify as transgender.

Republican lawmakers last year enacted laws barring transgender girls and women from female college and K-12 sports teams and ending legal recognition of transgender residents' gender identities. Transgender residents no longer can change the listing for “sex” on their driver's licenses or birth certificates to match their gender identities, something Kelly's administration had allowed.

“I do feel like there’s a genuine fear about me and what my body means, when I’m very happy,” Issac Johnson, who is transgender and just finished a social work internship in Topeka’s public schools, said during a recent Statehouse news conference.

Transgender youth, parents of transgender children and dozens of medical and mental health providers all described gender-affirming care as life-saving and argued that it lessens severe depression and suicidal tendencies among transgender youth. At least 200 health care providers signed a letter to lawmakers opposing a veto override.

During the Senate's debate Monday, Democratic Minority Leader Dinah Sykes' voice wavered as she spoke against the bill and told transgender residents, “We accept you and we cherish you.”

“I urge my colleagues to show grace and kindness,” she said.

But supporters of the bill repeatedly cited the recent decision of the National Health Service of England to stop covering puberty blockers as a routine treatment for gender dysphoria in minors.

NHS England issued a nearly 400-page report from its review, concluding that there is not enough evidence about the long-term effects of gender-affirming care or how well it works. In a foreword, the review’s leader added, “This is an area of remarkably weak evidence.”

Kansas Senate Health Committee Chair Beverly Gossage, a Kansas City-area Republican, told her colleagues: “We’re on the right side of history on this.”

Supporters of the bill also said many of their constituents simply have strong misgivings about medical treatments for children struggling with their gender identities.

The proposed ban would require Kansas to revoke the medical license of any doctor who violates it. It would bar gender-affirming care from being provided on state property or by recipients of state tax dollars.

Kansas' Medicaid program, providing health coverage for poor and disabled residents, also couldn't cover gender-affirming care. On Monday, in a case likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal appeals court ruled that West Virginia and North Carolina’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory.

“The language put in the bill is, in my opinion, is to try to prevent state entities, state employees, from promoting the use of different pronouns and, if you will, the search for gender change,” Republican state Rep. John Eplee, a northeastern Kansas family physician.

Kansas Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, speaks against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Sykes argues that the ban would deny transgender children crucial care that helps lessen severe depression and suicidal tendencies. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, speaks against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Holland suggested that the ban would send a message that Kansas is not welcoming. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Lobbyists Brittany Jones, left, of the conservative group Kansas Family Voice, and Lucrecia Nold, right, of the Kansas Catholic Conference, watch from the Senate's west gallery as members debate overriding a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Both of their organizations support a ban. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Isaac Johnson, who just completed an internship with Topeka's public schools and is finishing work on a social work degree, talks to reporters during a news conference, Thursday, April 26, 2024, in front of a mural at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Johnson, who is transgender, worries about the effects of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which also would bar state employees from promoting social transitioning for youth. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly speaks at a public event, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Kelly has vetoed a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors that also would bar state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender children. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchison, speaks in favor of overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Steffen says the state must protect "confused" children from a "confused health care system and confused parents." (AP Photo/John Hanna)