Zibanejad sparks Rangers to Game 1 win against Hurricanes

NEW YORK -- Mika Zibanejad had two goals and an assist for the New York Rangers, who defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

"As an offensive guy, you want to get involved and when you score and you're able to contribute to a win, and help your team win, that's a good feeling," Zibanejad said. "But it's one game. We've just got to keep going."

Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist, and Chris Kreider had two assists for the Rangers, who are the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan Division and have yet to lose this postseason (5-0). Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves.

New York is the fourth Presidents' Trophy winner to win at least its first five games to start a postseason, something it also did in 1994 (started 7-0), when it won the Stanley Cup.

"Playoffs for me is completely game to game," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We're going to have to take a look at what we did right, try to bring that back to the table. … We're going to have to elevate our game as well."

Jaccob Slavin, Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis scored, and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes, the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan. Frederik Andersen made 19 saves.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is in New York on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS).

The Hurricanes were 0-for-2 on the penalty kill and 0-for-5 on the power play after finishing first on the penalty kill (86.4 percent) and second on the power play (26.9 percent) during the regular season.

"It's clear our start and our special teams were the difference tonight, and we've always talked about that all year long," Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. "… You win that battle you have a really good chance of winning, and we didn't tonight. Both of them weren't good enough, obviously."

Zibanejad gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 2:46 into the first period, scoring in front off a pass from Jack Roslovic from behind the net.

Slavin tied the game 1-1 at 3:48 with a fluttering shot from the blue line that bounced before beating Shesterkin.

Zibanejad scored a power-play goal to put the Rangers back in front 2-1 at 10:05, converting on a one-timer off a no-look backhand feed from Kreider.

Trocheck increased the lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal from in front at 16:28.

"We really wanted to have a good start, especially at home, Game 1. Been off for a few days here and able to rest, and I thought that was most noticeable," Zibanejad said. "Guys were excited to play, and obviously when we were able to score on our chances early on and get a little bit more momentum. That was good."

Zibanejad had the primary assist on Trocheck's goal and has four straight multipoint games in the playoffs (three goals, six assists).

"Mika does everything for us," Kreider said. "Face-offs, responsible in his own zone, detailed, contributes offensively. We're really lucky to have two centermen (Zibanejad and Trocheck) like that."

Necas cut the lead to 3-2 at 2:48 of the third period, scoring with a snap shot off a pass from Jordan Martinook.

Artemi Panarin responded to make it 4-2 at 8:21, scoring under the blocker arm of Andersen.

"It's obviously nice to score tonight but more important is the [win]," Panarin said.

Jarvis scored with Andersen pulled for an extra skater to cut it to 4-3 with 1:47 remaining.

"We did a lot of good things in that game, especially at the end," Aho said. "We put good pressure on them and we got one goal back, and (getting) the second wasn't too far either, so just have to build off that."

The Hurricanes went on the power play with 41 seconds remaining in the third period, but it was nullified six seconds later when Andrei Svechnikov was called from tripping.

"Especially in an emotional building like this, it always seems to get everyone riled up, and we were at fault again," Staal said.

The Rangers, meanwhile, scored their two power-play goals in a combined 23 seconds of man-advantage time in the game.

"I thought we played a pretty good game," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "A couple of kills we didn't quite execute right, and they did. ... Other than that, really 20 seconds worth of specialty time where we just didn't execute and they did, we had a pretty good game."

NOTES: Zibanejad (three goals, seven assists), Roslovic (two goals, three assists) and Trocheck (four goals, four assists) each has at least one point in each of the Rangers' five playoff games this season. … Panarin's goal was his 124th point of the season (52 goals, 72 assists), including the playoffs, tying him with Jaromir Jagr (2005-06) for the Rangers' single-season record. … Staal, who was named a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL on Sunday, was 8-for-10 on face-offs, including 4-for-5 in the defensive zone. … The Rangers had 28 blocked shots, led by defenseman Jacob Trouba, who had six.