Mika Zibanejad hat trick powers Rangers past rival Devils

No, there was no guarantee. And this was hardly Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals 25 years ago.

But Mika Zibanejad did his best Mark Messier impersonation, completing the first hat trick for a Ranger in New Jersey since the captain’s epic 1994 playoff performance, this one resulting in a mid-winter 4-3 victory over the Devils on Thursday night in Newark.

Rather than finishing it off into the empty net and moving on to win the franchise’s only Stanley Cup since 1940 — like Messier — Zibanejad’s third goal broke a tie with just 4:36 remaining in regulation, a highlight-reel move when he took a great pass off the wall from Mats Zuccarello and then went forehand-to-backhand twice in the blink of an eye, roofing it for the game-winner.

“I just looked up on the time to see how much time was left, hoping it was like a minute left so we could just kill the game,” said Zibanejad, who now has 20 goals on the season. “It’s nice to be able to contribute, and it’s nice to have Zucc back again.”

The top line, with Chris Kreider on the left, was back together again after a foot infection had kept Zuccarello from playing the first game back after the break, a 1-0 loss to the Flyers on Tuesday night. But they were flying around in this one, combining for eight points.

When all three are together, they now have 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists) in the past six games, and 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in the past four games.

“They certainly were dominant tonight, and they have been for a while,” coach David Quinn said. “All three of those guys are playing on an extremely high level. It’s nice to see.”

As an organization, the Rangers (22-21-7) are happy to see Zibanejad play so well, eight goals in his past five games that paint him as that coveted top-line center. It also helps that a healthy Zuccarello is again playing with some jump, the free-agent-to-be’s trade value before the Feb. 25 deadline increasing with each of his now 12 points in his past six games.

It just might be a little tough for his teammates to see Zuccarello on his way out the door, none more than Zibanejad, his good buddy and recipient of some of those great passes.

“We’ve seen the chemistry before, and we saw it again tonight,” Zibanejad said. “It’s a fun line to play with. We’re playing, I would say, fun hockey.”

On nights like this, it’s possible for the Blueshirts to have the optimistic view, winners of four of their past five and five of their past seven, bridging the 10-day break that encompassed the bye week and the All-Star Game. But general manager Jeff Gorton is not going to break from script when it comes to this rebuild. It’s just that performances like this will make the final two-plus months of the season quite a bit more tolerable — and definitely a better developmental ground for some of the young players as opposed to losing every night.

“We can’t look at the standings every night,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who made 19 saves in his first start back after the All-Star weekend in San Jose, none better than the right-pad stop on Kevin Rooney with about three minutes remaining in regulation to preserve the one-goal lead. “We just have to look at every game like an opportunity to improve ourselves, and then we’ll see where we end up.”

The teams traded two power-play goals apiece in the first two periods, with the Devils (19-24-7) going up 2-0 on tallies from Nico Hischier and Marcus Johansson before Zibanejad got his first with just 1.8 seconds remaining in the first period, the next at 16:36 of the second period to tie it, 2-2.

Goals from Kreider and Egor Yakovlev in the third made it 3-3 before Zibanejad went all Messier on everyone.

“We talked about how when goals come, they come in flurries,” Quinn said. “They’re coming in a snowstorm rate right now for him, which is good for us.”