ZUCCARELLO’S HAT TRICK LIFTS RANGERS PAST LEAFS

New York — Mats Zuccarello’s hat trick sent the New York Rangers to a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night.

Henrik Lundqvist made 22 saves as the Rangers improved to 7-2-2. New York has won four of its last five, earning 10 points in its last six games.

The Rangers played for the first time since defeating Calgary, 4-1 on Oct. 25.

During the break, coach Alain Vigneault reconfigured his top two lines, reuniting Zuccarello with Derick Brassard and Rick Nash and putting Chris Kreider back with Derek Stepan.

Zuccarello opened the scoring at 9:41 in the first with his fifth of the season. Stationed inside the right circle, he one-timed a Brassard feed past Jonathan Bernier. New York held onto the 1-0 lead until Zuccarello finished a 2-on-1 by driving a Brassard feed over Bernier at 5:34 of the third.

His empty netter with 48.6 seconds left sealed the scoring.

Bernier made 23 saves as Toronto fell to 1-6-2. The Maple Leafs have lost five in a row.

“It’s the same as every game. You just want to work hard and sometimes it comes together and sometimes it doesn’t. Luckily tonight got a couple of bounces,” said Marchand.

Marchand, who extended his point streak to five games, also was given a major penalty and a game misconduct for boarding Dmitry Kulikov with 2:06 left in the game. Kulikov left the ice bleeding and has a broken nose.

The center said he watched a replay of the hit.

“He was a little off balance. I?just pushed him. It’s not like I?buried him hard or anything like that,” Marchand said. “It’s unfortunate. I obviously didn’t mean to bury him from behind, but things happen quick.”

Boston coach Claude Julien agreed.

“Definitely it’s a penalty. But it’s almost like he lost his balance, he put his arms in front, then his head hit the boards,” Julien said. “Once the guy is bleeding from a hit like that, they have to give him a game (misconduct).”

Boston goalie Tuukka Rask made 31 saves and Florida’s Roberto Luongo had 22.

The first period featured a number of strong scoring chances, especially for the Panthers. But it was scoreless until the Bruins were able use the league’s top power play to grab the lead after Florida’s Reilly Smith was sent off for hooking. Marchand tipped in a long shot by Chara past Luongo at 9:22 for his third goal.