RALEIGH, N.C. _ Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast scored two goals apiece and Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves as the Rangers routed the Hurricanes, 6-1.
The Blueshirts, who have won two straight and eight of their last 10, played without captain Ryan McDonagh, who missed his first game of the season because of an abdominal injury. He isn't expected to play Friday either at home against the Red Wings.
The Rangers (11-9-2) seized the early momentum, scoring on each of their first two shots on goal. Kreider opened the scoring just 52 seconds into the game. The winger finished off a three-way passing play from J.T. Miller and Brendan Smith, scoring his sixth goal of the season.
Less than two minutes later, the Blueshirts made it 2-0 on a strange goal from Mika Zibanejad, who flipped the puck toward the Carolina net from the neutral zone. Like an outfielder misjudging a fly ball, Carolina goaltender Scott Darling whiffed on Zibanejad's high-arcing shot and the puck sailed into the net.
A Rangers' too-many-men penalty at 7:47 opened the door for Carolina to answer on a power-play goal from Sebastian Aho, cutting the lead to 2-1. Carolina looked to be building momentum off the Aho goal, but then Rangers fourth-line winger Paul Carey banged in a rebound at 10:47 for his first goal of the season to make it 3-1.
Lundqvist (32 saves) held the line over the remainder of the period, stopping 16 of 17 Hurricanes shots, including a sprawling glove save to rob Carolina's Jordan Staal on a point-blank rebound attempt late in the period.
The second period passed without any scoring. The Rangers managed only one shot on goal through the first 17 minutes of the period, though they did have two close calls. Michael Grabner rang a shot off the crossbar behind Darling at 2:30, and Jimmy Vesey hit the post at the 10-minute mark. After spending most of the period on the defensive, the Blueshirts had a burst of energy late and generated a flurry of chances, forcing Darling to make four saves over the final three minutes.
Despite controlling the territorial play for the bulk of the period, Carolina generated few chances that troubled Lundqvist. The Rangers' penalty-killers denied a pair of Hurricane power plays _ both resulting from penalties on Carey, continuing his eventful night _ to keep the 3-1 lead intact after two periods.
The Rangers pulled away in the third period. Kreider notched his second goal of the game, a power-play goal, just 20 seconds into the period, scoring off his own rebound after a feed from Mats Zuccarello. Fast, who'd only scored one goal in 16 games coming in, scored twice in an eight-minute span. The first goal came after a nice cycle down low with linemates Rick Nash and Kevin Hayes _ Fast finished the play by snapping a shot past Darling's glove side. Fast struck again at 12:26, firing a one-timer off a pass from Steven Kampfer, McDonagh's replacement in the lineup.
