Mika to the rescue

Scores with minute left, then in shootout Devs net 4 in third, top Wings

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mika Zibanejad scored with 1:06 to play in regulation to send it to overtime and then scored in the shootout, helping the Rangers erase a twogoal deficit in the third period and beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, on Thursday night.

Trailing 3-2, the Rangers pulled goalie Alexandar Georgiev with 1:41 remaining for an extra skater and the move paid off with Zibanejad’s 24th goal of the season. His redirection caught Alex Stalock out of position and sneaked between the Wild goalie’s skate and the post.

“I didn’t even know if it was going to make it to the net, to be honest with you,” Zibanejad said. “It was a hard pass. I just tried redirecting it. I don’t think he saw it.”

After a scoreless overtime, Zibanejad beat Stalock with a backhander in the shootout. Artemi Panarin also scored to clinch the Rangers’ first shootout win of the season.

The Rangers entered the game 1-17-0 when trailing after two periods.

“We just never quit,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “We’ve been talking about the fact that the belief we have in each other continues to grow throughout the season. It was never more evident than it was tonight.”

Panarin added a goal in regulation, as did Pavel Buchnevich. Georgiev stopped 23 shots as the

Rangers won their third straight.

“This is the type of win you want to kind of build on,” Rangers center Ryan Strome said. “Hopefully we can keep it going.”

Ryan Donato, Jonas Brodin and Jordan Greenway scored for Minnesota, which led 3-1 until midway through the third period.

“Whatever we were doing obviously wasn’t enough,” Greenway said. “We didn’t do what we did in the first and second period.”

The Rangers pulled to within a goal at 3-2 when Buchnevich scored at 11:51 of the third. The puck bounced around in front of the net before eventually finding its way past Stalock.

One good period and a few well-chosen words from interim coach Alain Nasreddine were all the Devils needed to get past the struggling Red Wings.

Wayne Simmonds scored twice in a four-goal third-period outburst and the Devils rallied to beat the Red Wings, 4-1, on Thursday night.

“I think we got the coach’s message,” Simmonds said after his first multi-goal game as a Devil. “We turned it on, first period we were awful and it was like we were playing pond hockey, and the second period was a lot of power plays and penalty