2nd period leads to downfall
NEW YORK Mats Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad each scored twice and the New York Rangers snapped a twogame losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Kevin Hayes also scored, Neal Pionk added two assists and Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves for New York, which collected its third win of the young season.
Vincent Trocheck and Mike Hoffman each scored their third goals of the season, and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists for the Panthers, who fell to 1-3-3 despite holding the lead in each game.
Georgiev earned his first win of the season in his second appearance. The Russian netminder earned the backup job with an impressive 11-game run at the finish of the 2017-18 season.
Michael Hutchinson stopped 15 shots in his fourth game for Florida.
The Rangers benefited from strong special teams play, registering two power-play goals and a short-handed goal.
The Panthers outshot the Rangers 14-5 in the opening period and took a 1-0 lead when Trocheck’s shot sailed past Georgiev at 18:15 of the first. Jonathan Huberdeau and Evgenii Dadonov picked up the helpers while captain Aleksander Barkov screened the goaltender.
The Rangers stormed back with three unanswered goals in the second. Zibanejad scored his first of the game with a pretty wraparound while New York was short-handed due to a too many men on the ice penalty at 3:10. Adam McQuaid picked up the assist.
Zuccarello benefited from a fortuitous bounce as his shot deflected off Panthers defenseman Michael Matheson’s legs and into the goal at 11:36.
At 16:08 of the second period, Zibanejad struck again with a wrist shot that beat Hutchinson on the short side, giving New York a 3-1 advantage.
The Panthers will finish off their road trip with games against the Islanders and Devils before heading to Helsinki, Finland, to take on the Jets for two games as part of the NHL Global series.