NEW YORK -- Kevin Hayes isn't exactly known for his blazing speed, but his skating ability helped make the difference for the reeling New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound center stepped around defenseman Matt Irwin, swooped to the net and roofed what turned out to be the game-winning goal midway through the second period as the Rangers snapped a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory against the Nashville Predators at Madison Square Garden.

The goal gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead, just enough for goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who stopped 23 shots and was flawless as the Predators pushed for the tying goal in the third period.

"I had some speed there and their D was flat-footed," Hayes said. "Not often do I beat guys wide, but today that happened and luckily it went in. We've been struggling and to play 60 minutes here and get two points at home in front of our fans, it's big."

The Rangers (2-5-2) didn't exactly pepper goaltender Juuse Saros -- they had just 15 shots total -- but Lundqvist and the penalty kill rose to the occasion. The Predators were 0-for-5 with the man-advantage against a New York team that entered the game last in the league in penalty-kill percentage.

Lundqvist rose to the occasion during the Nashville's final power play late in the third period, stopping three shots, but the Rangers' penalty-killing units held the Predators to just five total shots in five opportunities.

"The PK was awesome," said New York forward J.T. Miller, who set up Chris Kreider's power-play goal in the first period. "They did a lot of good things for us. On some of the inside looks they did get, (Lundqvist) was right there. The PK guys did an awesome job of getting sticks in lanes and broke up a lot of passes."

After starting slow in their past two losses, a problem that has persisted for most of the season, the Rangers jumped to a 2-0 first-period on goals by Jesper Fast and Kreider.

Mattias Ekholm answered for the Predators (4-3-1) early in the second period, but Hayes came through later in the period with his third goal of the season.

The third period was tense, as Filip Forsberg was credited with a goal late in the second period when Roman Josi's shot deflected off his body and past Lundqvist to make it 3-2, but the Rangers held on late despite being mostly under siege from Nashville and iced the win when Jimmy Vesey scored into an empty net with 38.5 seconds to play.

"We created enough chances to win this game by a couple goals," Forsberg said. "You've got to give credit to Lundqvist, but at the same time, we had chances to bury."

"At the end of the day, we've got to score goals," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. "We have to work to get the opportunities and we thought we did. They didn't go for us but the effort was there."

The Rangers have two more games on their six-game homestand that has yielded just one win. The remaining opponents are the San Jose Sharks, who have also struggled out of the gate, and the Arizona Coyotes, the NHL's only winless team entering the weekend, so a turnaround could be on the horizon.

But to earn two points after blowing a late lead against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night and failing to complete a comeback against the Islanders on Thursday, any win feels pretty good to the Rangers right now.

"It was a good feeling to finally get a win here," Lundqvist said. "We talked about it the last couple of games, we were one play away from getting a win. You can do so many good things to try to get confidence and try to get a good feeling in here, but it in the end it comes down to winning games. I think I'd rather play bad and win than play great and lose.

"But this was coming. We've had a couple of games now where we've been close and it was just a matter of time. Finally, we get the two points here, take a deep breath and then we go after another two points on Monday."

NOTES: The Nashville Predators placed C Nick Bonino (lower body) on injured reserve. The team expects him to miss a couple of weeks. ... Predators D Yannick Weber was activated from injured reserve and inserted into the lineup. ... The Predators scratched D Samuel Girard, D Anthony Bitteto and LW Ponts Aberg. ... The New York Rangers dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards. Their one lineup change from their previous game was scratching C Adam Cracknell and inserting D Nick Holden. ... The Rangers also scratched D Steve Kampfer and C Paul Carey.