NEW YORK -- The best of the New York Rangers showed up in a big way. Again.
Dominant special teams. Production from the top six forwards. Enough saves from goalie Igor Shesterkin.
It's the recipe the Rangers followed to their Presidents' Trophy-winning regular season and through a first-round sweep of the Washington Capitals.
The same ingredients helped them whip up a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Game 2 is at the Garden on Tuesday.
"You're off for a bit of time, you come back, you're a week out from the last time you played, I thought the start was really good and I thought we followed that right through the game," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "I thought it was pretty consistent the way we played. Mika, obviously, had a huge night. 'Troch' has been like that all year."
Mika Zibanejad scored two goals and had an assist in the first period. Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist in the first. Chris Kreider assisted on one of Zibanejad's goals and on Trocheck's. Artemi Panarin's goal in the third period turned into the game-winner.
Add in assists for Alexis Lafrenière and Jack Roslovic, whose speed led to Zibanejad's first goal at 2:46 of the first, and the Rangers' top-six forward group combined for 10 points on four goals and six assists.
Adam Fox, the Rangers' leading scorer on the back end, also had an assist.
"We rely on those guys," defenseman Braden Schneider said. "They're amazing players. They're producing, but at the same time they're working all over the ice. They're in the D-zone blocking shots. They're skating up through the neutral zone. They're working on the forecheck. And it's paying off for us. I think they've done a great job leading the way for us."
Zibanejad in particular has taken his game to another level in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He's up to 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in five games, tied with Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl for second-most in the League behind Connor McDavid's 12.
He has points in all five playoff games, including at least two in the past four. He had 72 points (26 goals, 46 assists) in 81 games in the regular season.
"That's very important, for sure, when players like Mika stand up and show his skills, his level," Panarin said. "It's unbelievable."
The same adjective can be used for the Rangers' power play.
They scored on their only two power-play opportunities, needing two shots and a combined 23 seconds to do so; nine seconds for Zibanejad to make it 2-1 at 10:05 of the first and 14 seconds for Trocheck to extend the lead to 3-1 lead at 16:28.
"Efficient" was the word Laviolette used to describe it.
It was that way in the regular season, when the Rangers finished third in the League at 26.4 percent.
The power play is 8-for-18 (44.4 percent) in the playoffs.
"I thought we were executing, trying to attack," Zibanejad said. "It's a really good PK that we're playing against, so we have to execute and I thought we did that tonight. It's something that we're going to have to keep doing if we're going to have some success against these guys."
