NEW YORK _ Back in action after the NHL's three-day Christmas break, the Rangers on Friday looked like a team that didn't get enough to eat over the holiday. They looked hungry.
Facing a Carolina Hurricanes team that currently holds the second wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers started the game by throwing their bodies around, hitting everything in a white shirt in the first 10 minutes. They got their big guns into play, and they even scored a couple of power-play goals, courtesy of Mika Zibanejad.
Powered by those two goals, and goals from Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome and 39 saves from goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers got their post-Christmas schedule off to a strong start, putting together a solid 5-3 victory over the Hurricanes before a Madison Square Garden crowd that included a spectator named Mark Messier. The win lifted their record to 18-15-4, pulling them to within six points of Carolina in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
After the power play went 0 for 4 in the loss to Philadelphia on Monday _ extending their streak of futility to 0 for 17 _ coach David Quinn promised he would "move some pieces around" with the man advantage. His big move was putting second-line center Strome on the first unit. Strome, a right-handed shooter, was stationed in the right circle, which meant he would be unable to take one-time shots there. But Quinn thought it best, he said, to have Strome in that spot rather than lefties Kaapo Kakko, who has been there most of the season, or Pavel Buchnevich.
"He knows when to shoot; he knows when to pass," Quinn said of Strome. "I like his decision-making process. I'd prefer to have a lefty up there, but right now I just don't think that's working. Sometimes you've got to create a power play based on what you think your five best are in a particular situation and that's what we're doing right now."
Whether the change had anything to do with it or not, the power play clicked seven seconds into its first advantage when Kreider made a clever backhand feed from behind the net to Zibanejad, who roofed a shot over the shoulder of Carolina goalie James Reimer at 16:31, tying the game at 1-1. Zibanejad then set up Kreider on a two-on-one break for a goal at 1:27 of the second period to put the Rangers in front 2-1.
Carolina appeared to tie the game when Sebastian Aho tipped in a puck over Lundqvist for what looked like a power-play goal at 5:28 of the period, but the Rangers challenged the play, alleging offside. After video review, the goal was disallowed and barely two minutes later, at 7:29, Panarin fished the puck out of a scrum in the crease and popped in his 21st goal of the season to make it 3-1.
Zibanejad then added a second power-play goal at 13:14 of the second period when Tony DeAngelo shot a puck from the blue line that hit a body in front and fell to an open spot in the slot, where Zibanejad was first to get to it, roofing it over Reimer for his 14th goal of the season.
Carolina's Brett Pesce scored on a two-on-one break at 17:11 of the second period, finishing a shot after a pass from Linus Wallmark, who'd scored Carolina's first goal early in the first period. And Aho made the Rangers sweat when he scored at 1:40 of the third period to pull Carolina within 4-3.
But Strome drove the net and finished a two-on-one pass from Panarin at 13:49 and the Rangers killed off a penalty to Kreider with 3:06 to play.
