Deadline additions key in win

The Rangers opened up the scoring in their eventual 4-1 win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, which evened this second-round series at two-all heading back to Raleigh, N.C., with a sequence that may as well have been sponsored by president and general manager Chris Drury.

While on the power play, Andrew Copp whipped a cross-zone pass over to Frank Vatrano for the 1-0 score at 13:31 of the first period. The Rangers’ two top-six trade-deadline acquisitions got things started and kept it rolling throughout the game, combining for two goals and three assists in the victory.

RANGERS NOTES

“Huge, they’ve been huge,” coach Gerard Gallant said of the four players the Rangers acquired leading up to the March 21 trade deadline. “The day we got them, we were really excited with the character of these guys and the work ethic that they bring to our team. They’re putting the puck in the net for us, they’re doing all the little things and working hard, competing hard.”

After Vatrano’s power-play tally, Copp had a hand in the Rangers’ second goal of the night just over two minutes later when Adam Fox tipped in a Ryan Lindgren shot. Vatrano then earned the secondary assist on Mika Zibanejad’s goal in the second period that gave the Rangers a 3-0 lead at 16:48.

Copp capped his three-point night with a one-timer on a drop pass from Ryan Strome in the third period. Through 11 playoff games so far, Copp has five goals and five assists while Vatrano has chipped in three goals and four assists.

➤ Gallant went back to the top-six configuration the Rangers have rolled with for much of the playoffs, with Vatrano on the right wing of Chris Kreider and Zibanejad and Copp on the right wing next to Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.

The one tweak he made to the lineup was flipping Motte up to the right wing of the third line with Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil and bumping Kaapo Kakko to the left wing of the fourth unit alongside Kevin Rooney and Ryan Reaves.