New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist made enough early stops and his teammates finally generated offense in a 4-2 victory against the host Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.
Lundqvist made 22 of his season-high 45 saves in the first period.
Artemi Panarin, Brendan Lemieux, Pavel Buchnevich and Adam Fox scored for New York, which took advantage of limited scoring opportunities.
The Rangers have won two in a row and four of their last five games.
Dougie Hamilton and Sebastian Aho scored for Carolina, which lost its third game in a row. The Hurricanes have scored a total of three goals across their last two games, marking their most notable offensive slump of the season.
Aho's goal closed the gap to 3-2 with 4:02 left in the third period. Fox countered with 1:25 to play.
Lundqvist, who has won eight of his last nine decisions against Carolina, was coming off a 35-save performance a night earlier against the Detroit Red Wings.
Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek stopped 15 shots.
The Hurricanes didn't put the puck past Lundqvist until Hamilton redirected Jaccob Slavin's delivery on the team's 31st shot on goal for the tying score with 5:28 remaining in the second period.
The Rangers were back on top later in the period, converting 18 seconds into a power play. Lemieux tipped a launch from Tony DeAngelo for his first goal of the season.
New York made it a two-goal margin on Buchnevich's goal. He created a turnover and took the puck to the net.
Panarin converted for the game's first goal from in front of the net with 28 seconds remaining in the opening period.
The Rangers' goal came on the team's sixth shot after Carolina put 19 pucks on net. The Hurricanes ended up with 22 first-period shots, the most in any period this season.
Carolina center Eetu Luostarinen made his NHL debut as left winger Erik Haula, the team's leading scorer, missed his second game in a row with a knee injury.
--Field Level Media
NY Rangers | Carolina | |
Artemi Panarin 2 | Points | Sebastian Aho 1 |
Artemi Panarin 1 | Goals | Sebastian Aho 1 |
Pavel Buchnevich 2 | Assists | Ryan Dzingel 1 |
Brendan Lemieux 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Henrik Lundqvist .957 | Save Percentage | Petr Mrazek .833 |
Henrik Lundqvist 45 | Saves | Petr Mrazek 15 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
NY Rangers | 19 | 4 | 1-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 20 |
Carolina | 47 | 2 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 4 | 31 |