NEW YORK _ Alain Vigneault badly wanted this one. He knew his Rangers let points slip away the night prior in Washington and his explanation for starting Henrik Lundqvist for the second straight night Saturday against the Devils began with this: "Big game."
The Rangers played like it, coming out quicker and sharper than they were Friday, building on an early advantage and seeing it through in a 5-2 victory over the Devils, two goals courtesy of Mats Zuccarello.
His first was the product of terrific individual effort. Less than three minutes after Damon Severson's laser brought the Devils within one, Zuccarello stripped Severson in the Devils' zone just inside the blue line as a New Jersey power play concluded, skated into the slot and beat Keith Kinkaid stick-side to put the Rangers (16-11-2) up 3-1.
Zuccarello's second of the night came at 6:21 of the third off a quick transition play. Ryan McDonagh sparked the breakout with a great pass to Zuccarello, who passed back-and-forth with J.T. Miller, the latter setting Zuccarello up with a crisp cross-ice feed.
The Rangers went 3-1 in their stretch of four straight against division foes.
Jimmy Vesey, who was dropped to the fourth line while swapping spots with Jesper Fast, opened the scoring at 6:14, and Fast _ suddenly a goal-scorer extraordinaire _ doubled the Rangers' lead at 9:42 of the second. Fast has a career-high three-game goal streak and has scored in six of the last eight games.
