In New York, Will Cuylle scored midway through the third period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead over the4 Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves to protect the lead for a the 2-1 final.
The Ranges have won six straight, their first at home since a sweep of a five-game roadie.
The Rangers lost Adam Fox and Filip Chytil to injuries in the game.
“‘Fil’ and ‘Foxy’ are really important players for us, so hopefully everything will be good,” Shesterkin said. “We just tried to play our game. Cuylle stepped up in the big moment.”
The Rangers improved to 8-2-0.
“We were in a good spot coming off that road trip and we wanted to continue it,” the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba said. “This is not an easy game to play coming off the West Coast. There’s no excuses coming into it, but in reality it’s not an easy game to play when you’re playing one at home and heading back on the road (at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday). But we found a way in that third period.”
Chris Kreider’ scored at 2:41 of the first off the power play for a 1-0 lead to the Rangers.
New York was 1-for-5 on the power play.
“Taking five penalties is not the way to win,” Carolina defenseman Brady Skjei said. “Trying to stay out of the box in the future is huge, especially against a team like this. We didn’t quite have it tonight.”
Artemi Panarin had an assist to extend his season opening point streak to 10 game with five goals and 16 points in the 10 games.
It was Panarin’s 600th NHL game.
Seth Jarvis tied the game, 1-1, at the midway point of the period for the Canes.
“The first period was no good because we were in the box,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We were lucky to come out of that 1-1. Our power play made a nice play to tie the game. That’s all we had that period because we were in the box.”
Carolina dropped to 6-5-0.
“We actually had a good third period, but we took one breather,” Brind’Amour said. “We came off our guy in the corner and he made a nice play, but that’s not how we do it. That was frustrating.”
Cuylle scored after driving to the net, and taking a hard pass from Jacob Trouba down low in the left corner.
“I saw him pinch down the wall and get the puck, and I saw a little lane and tried to sprint to the back post,” Cuylle said. “He made a great pass to find me. I was pretty excited. First goal at MSG, and it was a big one.”
It was his second goal of the campaign.
Frederik Andersen made 24 saves in the loss.
“We came out, we were on the attack and eventually got ourselves a goal,” the Rangers Peter Laviolette said. “And then at that point it’s about playing defense.”
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