RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes showed off a youth movement on the offensive end, but it took a veteran's work in the net to complete the task Thursday night.

Rookie Sebastian Aho scored a pair of third-period, power-play goals as the Hurricanes overcame the New York Rangers for a 4-3 victory at PNC Arena.

Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward made a season-high 40 saves for his first victory in more than month.

"A tough challenge against a very good team," Ward said. "It has been a while for myself to get in a win and that's the reason you play the game."

Jeff Skinner and Valentin Zykov, who was making his NHL debut, also scored for Carolina, which won for only the second time in the last seven games (2-3-2).

So rookies accounted for three of the Carolina goals.

"There was some offense tonight," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "A good answer by the power play in the third period."

Those were Aho's first goals on home ice in the past seven outings. He has reached the 20-goal mark for the season.

"It's a nice number," he said, pointing out that he simply finished the plays. "Those were some nice passes."

Zykov barely had a reaction to his goal, which came on an early shift.

"I tried not to think before the game," he said of the significance of his first game with the Hurricanes.

Mika Zibanejad scored twice for the Rangers, who also received a goal from Chris Kreider. Derek Stepan was credited with two New York assists.

Antti Raanta stopped 26 saves for the Rangers, who won three of their previous four games.

After only four shots in the second period, the Hurricanes took advantage of New York penalties in the third period. Aho's goal with 10:56 remaining pulled the Hurricanes even. He struck again with 7:32 remaining.

On Aho's first goal, the Rangers challenged the ruling, looking for goalie interference on Carolina's Elias Lindholm.

"In my opinion, it was the wrong call," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "At the end of the day, we didn't play well enough in the third period."

Still, it was up to Ward to keep it that way.

"He was big," Peters said. "He made some big saves when we needed them."

The Rangers scored three power-play goals for a 3-2 lead through two periods. It was only the second time this season that New York had more than two power-play goals in a game, and the first time since the calendar flipped to 2017.

"We got some good zone time and forced them into penalties," Vigneault said.

Carolina entered the game ranking third in the NHL in penalty-killing. It had given up more than one power-play goal twice this season, but never allowed three in a game.

With the Rangers on a 5-on-3 advantage, Kreider delivered after receiving a pass from Stepan, who was behind the net. Of Kreider's 26 goals, a team-high six have come on power plays.

The Hurricanes went ahead in the first period by scoring twice in a 29-second span, first with Skinner notching his team-leading 21st goal.

Zykov's first NHL shot resulted in a goal. He fought off a pair of Rangers to slide the back-handed shot past Raanta.

"That's just playing hockey, that's all," said Zykov, a 21-year-old Russian.

On the Rangers' first second-period power play, they pulled even when Zibanejad converted on a rebound. He became the Rangers' 10th player to reach the 10-goal mark this season, but there was more.

New York's third power play of the period resulted in Zibanejad's unassisted, go-ahead goal with 3:18 to play in the period.

NOTES: Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist was scratched with a lower-body ailment after playing in five of the past six games, including Tuesday night's victory at Florida. G Brandon Halverson arrived from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL on an emergency basis. ... LW Valentin Zykov made his NHL debut for the Hurricanes, scoring in the first period. The 21-year-old was called up from Charlotte of the American Hockey League after compiling 30 points in 55 games for the Checkers. ... The Rangers complete a four-game road stretch Sunday at Detroit. ... For Carolina, this began a stretch of five home games in a six-game stretch, with Toronto visiting Saturday night.