The Rangers killed two Carolina power plays before Zibanejad scored a power-play goal off a no-look behind the back pass from Kreider at 16:31, tying the game at 1-1.
"I called for it, but apparently he didn't hear me so he made the pass praying and hoping I was there," Zibanejad said. "It was an unbelievable pass."
Kreider was the recipient of a pass from Zibanejad on a 2-on-1 early in the second period, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 1:27. Zibanejad faked a shot in the right circle before moving it across to Kreider in the left circle.
New York killed two more Carolina power plays before Panarin scored to make it 3-1 at 7:29.
Prior to Panarin's goal, Carolina had a would-be game-tying power-play goal by Sebastian Aho overturned after the Rangers challenged for offside at 5:28.
"Really a big, big momentum change in the game," Quinn said.
Aho felt it shouldn't have made that big of a difference because the Hurricanes still had 1:18 remaining on the power play.
"There is no excuse," he said. "We should get another one and take the momentum back."
Zibanejad made it 4-1 at 13:14.
The Hurricanes cut it to 4-2 at 17:11, when Wallmark setup Brett Pesce for a one-timer. Aho made it 4-3 at 1:40 of the third period, scoring off a rebound for his NHL-leading 19th goal since Nov. 1.
Panarin's pass from out of the corner setup Ryan Strome in the slot at 13:49 to make it 5-3.
"The effort was there all night and we worked hard, but we gave too many easy goals to them," Aho said. "It's not hard enough to win against us right now. The game is right there. We play well enough and we have a lot of scoring chances. The system works, obviously. When we have a chance, we have to be a little bit sharper."