NEW YORK _ Through all the line juggling that Rangers coach David Quinn has done while continually searching for offense this season, one thing has remained constant: Mika Zibanejad has been the undisputed No. 1 center.
Zibanejad broke out with two goals and two assists _ both on goals by new linemate Mats Zuccarello _ to power an offensive explosion for the Rangers, who beat the Florida Panthers, 5-2, Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The four points matched a career high for Zibanejad as the Rangers (3-5-1) closed out a two-game homestand before leaving on an eight-day, four-game road trip to Chicago, Los Angeles, San Jose and Anaheim.
Zibanejad scored one shorthanded goal and one power-play goal, and won two faceoffs that ended up setting up Zuccarello's first two goals of the season. The two alternate captains have not often played together at even strength, but in his search for offense for his goal-starved team, Quinn put Zuccarello on Zibanejad's line, along with Chris Kreider.
The goalfest made a winner of backup goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, who returned from a brief stint in the minor leagues. Georgiev made 36 saves, doing most of his best work in the first two periods.
Georgiev, who had played only one of the first seven games (and allowed seven goals in that game, an 8-5 loss to Carolina on Oct. 7) was sent to AHL Hartford last week to get ice time. He played Friday and Saturday, and was recalled Monday. Quinn said that he would play against the Panthers, and before the game, Quinn said part of the reason Georgiev was playing was that Henrik Lundqvist has been dealing with an upper-body issue.
"It's a long season (and) we think Georgie's a good goalie, a really good goalie," Quinn said. "We'd like to get him a home game, and it just seemed the right time. Hank's been battling a little bit of some issues, upper-body issues, and tonight was a good night for him to ... I just thought it was a good time to get Georgie in."
Lundqvist played Sunday night and practiced Monday, so apparently whatever the "issues" he has been dealing with were not major. Perhaps Quinn and goalie coach Benoit Allaire also thought the struggling Panthers were a team Georgiev would handle.
The Rangers were outshot 14-5 in the first period and down 1-0 after Vincent Trocheck fired a screened wrist shot past Georgiev on a power play at 18:15. (The Rangers had been called for too many men on the ice, something they've had trouble with early in the season.)
But things turned around quickly in the second period, starting with Zibanejad's first goal, a short-handed effort in which he swooped in from the right side, circled behind the net and banked a wraparound shot off goalie Michael Hutchinson's skate and in for his fourth goal of the season at 3:10.
The Rangers scored on consecutive power plays to take a 3-1 lead before the period was over. First, Zuccarello scored his first goal of the season, on a shot from the left circle that deflected in off a Panthers defender at 11:36, and Zibanejad opened a two-goal lead with a wrist shot that beat Hutchinson at 16:08.
Zuccarello scored an even-strength goal at 1:27 of the third to make it 4-1, before Mike Hoffman pulled one back for Florida (1-3-3) at 10:37. Kevin Hayes added an empty-net goal with 51.9 seconds left.
