Zibanejad, Rangers top Hurricanes to stay hot, climb in wild-card race

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Mika Zibanejad had a goal and two assists, and the New York Rangers completed a season sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes with a 5-2 win at PNC Arena on Friday.

Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (32-24-4), who have won six of their past seven and moved to five points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves for his sixth straight win.
"The guys were playing with a lot of emotion," New York defenseman Brady Skjei said. "We had a ton of energy going the entire night. The way we thought and the way we played, it was a really solid game for us."
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Brock McGinn and Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes (34-22-4), who are one point behind the Blue Jackets. Petr Mrazek made 31 saves.
"I felt like we were chasing the game the whole time," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We never really could get to what we wanted to do. They play a good game for sure. We always say you earn your breaks. They got a few tonight."

During a penalty kill midway through the first period, Shesterkin made the save on consecutive backhand shots by Justin Williams at 10:22 before making the save on a hard shot by Andrei Svechnikov at 10:37.
"He's been on a hot run," Rangers coach David Quinn said of Shesterkin, who is 8-1-0 in his rookie season. "Our guys have a lot of confidence in all our goalies, but he's been the guy who keeps winning. When a guy's in there doing what he's been doing, your team feels a little more confident."
New York blocked 17 shots in the period, including one by Zibanejad that led to him giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 16:41. He blocked a shot by Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal, skated in on a breakaway and scored with a backhand.
"They blocked a lot of shots," Staal said of the Rangers, who finished with 24 blocked shots. "Obviously, my mistake and a couple other plays. We need to be better. We didn't test [Shesterkin] enough. We could have thrown some more pucks at him."
McGinn tied it 1-1 at 3:25 of the second period when he cut through the slot and scored on a wrist shot.

Jesper Fast put the Rangers in front 2-1 at 9:48 after his return pass on a give-and-go with Panarin went in off the skate of Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce. The assist was Panarin's 400th NHL point.
Skjei pushed the lead to 3-1 at 16:09 when his pass from behind the net went off the skate of Carolina defenseman Jake Gardiner and between the pads of Mrazek.
"Five or 10 games ago when we were struggling a little bit, we couldn't get any [bounces]," Rangers forward Ryan Strome said. "But we had guys going to the net, we had guys playing hard. When we played these guys earlier in the year, we got dominated. You look at the game tonight, it speaks volumes about how far our team has come."

Panarin made it 4-1 on the power play at 1:40 of the third period off Zibanejad's no-look backhand pass.
Aho tapped in the rebound of Svechnikov's shot on the power play to cut it to 4-2 at 5:12.
Strome scored into an empty net with 1:48 left for the 5-2 final.
"We were really on top of them, not only in the offensive zone but in the neutral zone," Quinn said. "We didn't give them a lot of time and space. I'm really proud of our guys. Just a gutsy effort."

They said it

"That's a team that plays hard, that plays heavy, play north and plays honest. There was no room for east-west plays or soft plays. Most of the game was just advancing pucks and winning lines and board battles. That's what most of the games are going to be like down the stretch. It's a very encouraging win for us." -- Rangers forward Chris Kreider
"[The Rangers] were good. They were desperate a little more than we were, but that's the bigger issue. We needed to have a little more desperation early in the game to kind of set the tone, and we never did." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Need to know

The Rangers have won seven straight road games. … New York outscored Carolina 17-9 in the four games this season. … Rangers forward Filip Chytil left in the third period with an upper-body injury. ... Panarin has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in an eight-game point streak. … Zibanejad has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in a six-game point streak. … Aho extended his point streak to 11 games (17 points; 11 goals, six assists), and Svechnikov (assist) extended his to nine games (11 points; five goals, six assists). … The Hurricanes are 6-11-1 against the Metropolitan Division.

What's next

Rangers: Host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, MSG, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, CBC, SN360, SNO, SNW, SNP, FS-CR, NHL.TV)