NEW YORK _ The Rangers survived an injury scare to goalie Henrik Lundqvist and kept coming at the streaking Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night, but in the end, the Blue Jackets were simply too hot for them to handle Tuesday night at the Garden.
Columbus, methodically climbing the ladder in the Eastern Conference, got a hat trick from Artemi Panarin _ his second career hat trick and second against the Rangers _ and rolled to their ninth straight win, 5-3.
Markus Nutivaara's goal, at 4:05 of the third period, put Columbus up, 3-1, but Mika Zibanejad's fifth goal in three games pulled the Rangers back within 3-2. Then Panarin scored his second goal with 8:41 remaining to put Columbus up by two goals again, and, with 5:02 remaining, Lundqvist sprinted out of his net to clear a loose puck and was run into by a charging Matt Calvert, flipping the goalie head over heels. He landed on his back and was down for a few minutes, but continued in the game.
Chris Kreider's power play goal, with Lundqvist on the bench for the extra skater, pulled the Rangers back within a goal, at 4-3, but Panarin ended it by finishing his hat trick into an empty net.
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