RALEIGH, N.C. _ Sebastian Aho now has 20 goals in his rookie season and Valentin Zykov his first, and their scores Thursday keyed the Carolina Hurricanes' 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers.
Aho scored twice on the power play in the third period as the Canes rallied. Zykov, in his NHL debut, had a first-period goal _ and later collected the puck as a keepsake _ to make the night memorable at PNC Arena.
Goaltender Cam Ward had a season-high 40 saves for the Canes in earning his 22nd win of the season.
Aho scored on a big outside slapshot at 9:04 of the third to tie the score 3-3, then rifled a shot from the right circle past goalie Antti Raanta at 12:28 to push the Canes in front. He became the third rookie in Canes' history to score 20 as a rookie, joining Jeff Skinner (31 in 2010-11) and Shane Willis (20 in 2000-01).
Skinner also scored in the first period for the Canes, but the Rangers scored three times on the power play _ twice by Mika Zibanejad _ in a taking a 3-2 lead after the second period.
Zykov, recalled Wednesday from the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League, muscled his way through defensemen Marc Staal and Ryan McDonagh to get to the front of the net and knock the puck past Raanta. The puck was collected to be kept as a memento and the Canes had the lead.
Aho scored his 19th of the season on a third-period power play as the Canes tied the score 3-3. Aho took a pass from Teuvo Teravainen and beat Raanta with a hard slapshot from just inside the blue line.
The Canes couldn't stay out of the penalty box the first two periods and couldn't kill off the penalties against a team that had been badly struggling on the power play.
A double-minor for high-sticking against Carolina's Derek Ryan _ the Rangers' Kevin Hayes left the ice bleeding _ and then a tripping call against Elias Lindholm gave the Rangers a 5-on-3 advantage. The Rangers cashed in as Chris Kreider scored his 26th goal of the season after Ward made some scrambling stops.
New York had gone 11 games without a power-play goal, failing to convert 26 times, but the Kreider goal broke the ice and there would be more.
In the second period, Zibanejad scored his first after the Canes' Victor Rask was called for closing his hand on the puck trying to make a play in the neutral zone.
After the Canes' Ryan Murphy wad penalized for tripping, Zibanejad struck again. Canes center Jay McClement failed to clear the puck from the slot, and Zibanejad ripped a shot past Ward.
It was the first time this season Carolina had allowed three power-play scores in a game. The Canes led the league in penalty killing much of the season but have dipped to third after the departure of Ron Hainsey, active and craft on the back end of the P.K., and Viktor Stalberg, whose aggressive play up front often led to short-handed chances.
Aho had been called on to kill penalties after the trades and an injury to forward Brock McGinn, and his hustle in the first period gave the Canes some needed energy.
After the Kreider goal, Aho hustled up ice for a shorthanded opportunity. Raanta was able to make the stop, but Aho forced a penalty on the Rangers' Brady Skjei.
Skinner scored his 21st after a Rangers turnover in the New York zone, taking a pass from Rask and beating Raanta with a backhander. Then, it was Zykov's moment.
Playing on a line with Jordan Staal and Aho, Zykov first battled with Marc Staal in the corner, then beat Staal and McDonagh to the front of the net.
The Rangers played with goalie Henrik Lundqvist out with a lower-body injury and the Rangers were also without injured forwards Rick Nash and Michael Grabner.
Raanta was coming off a shutout of Tampa Bay and was called on when Lundqvist was injured Tuesday in the Rangers' win over the Florida Panthers.
