Rangers Surge into Thanksgiving With 6-1 Win Over Hurricanes

Before giving thanks on Thursday, the Ranges had one more piece of business to take care of when they routed the Hurricanes, 6-1, Wednesday night in Raleigh for their eighth win in their last 10 games.
Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast each scored twice and Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves for his 10th win of the season.
The Blueshirts jumped out to the lead just 52 seconds into the contest when Brendan Smith drew Carolina's defense and goaltender Scott Darling out of position. Smith hit Kreider in the slot, who buried the shot for his sixth goal of the season.
"It's happened to us a lot early in the season," Kreider said of what an early goal does to the opposition. "It's hard. We've had some good starts and that definitely gives you a leg up."

Mika Zibanejad benefitted on a Darling blunder when Zibanejad floated a puck on net before going for a line change. Darling, though, missed the catch and it ended up in the back of the net for his team-leading 11th of the year to put the Rangers up two just 2:26 into the game.
After a Carolina power play goal, Paul Carey reestablished New York's two-goal lead with his first goal as a Ranger at 10:47 of the first when he capitalized
Kreider potted his second of the night just 20 seconds into the third off a centering pass by Zibanejad with the Blueshirts on the power play that made it 4-1. Kreider's first chance was denied but he beat Darling on the rebound for his 10th career multi-goal game.
"Guys were looking for me and doing a really good job of finding me," Kreider said.

Fast capped the scoring with two goals in 6:39, the first time in his NHL career he posted two goals in one game. Fast's first came off a feed from Kevin Hayes, while the second was the result of a pretty pass by Steven Kampfer on the side of the net.
Lundqvist's dominance of the Hurricanes continued Wednesday, as the netmidner improved to 26-11-1 against Carolina in his career, with 17 wins in his last 20 appearances.
No. 30's best save came in the first period when he denied Jordan Staal with a beautiful glove save that preserved the Blueshirts' two-goal advantage.

New York played the game without captain Ryan McDonagh, who missed the contest with a strained abdomen. He'll miss at least Friday's game before being reevaluated this weekend.
The Blueshirts didn't miss a beat in allowing just one power play goal against and held the Hurricanes to just 16 shots on goal over the final two periods.
"I thought we played a good, sound defensive game," said Smith, sporting the Broadway Hat. "Obviously when you lose your best D player, it's tough to fill that hole. But I thought guys did a really good job. Steven [Kampfer] played a great game, came in and played really well. I thought we made the simple plays and it helped us early."
New York had contributions throughout the lineup with 13 players posting at least one point, including four defensemen picking up assists. Quite the way to open the holiday season.
"Without naming anybody in particular," coach Alain Vigneault said, "this was a real solid team effort both offensively and defensively. It was a big two points for us."