'Canes rally past Rangers 4-3 in Staal's return to Raleigh
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Victor Rask scored the go-ahead goal with 10:54 left, and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied to beat the New York Rangers 4-3 on Thursday night in former captain Eric Staal's return to his old home arena.
Jeff Skinner, Patrick Brown and Justin Faulk also scored for the Hurricanes, who trailed 3-2 after two periods. Ryan Murphy had two assists and Cam Ward made 24 saves.
Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash scored for New York and Derek Stepan had two assists during a three-goal second. Henrik Lundqvist finished with 24 saves for the Rangers, who fell to 27-2-2 when leading after two.
Rask's winner off a rebound came after Faulk reached up to keep the puck in the offensive zone. The Rangers challenged that the Carolina defenseman was offside but the officials determined the video review was inconclusive, allowing the goal to stand.
Skinner started the third-period rally when he redirected Murphy's slap shot from the blue line past Lundqvist 4:22 into the third, and Ward stopped all 10 shots he faced in the period.
Carolina has earned points in 12 of 14 games since the trade deadline - the day after it sent Staal to the Rangers.
All eyes were on the former Carolina captain in his first game at the arena he called home for a dozen years.
The wall outside the Rangers' dressing room bore a collage of photos of Staal's time in Carolina and a ''ThankYouEric'' Twitter hashtag. During the first TV timeout, the Hurricanes played a tribute to him on the videoboard - after which, Staal did not one but two thank-you stick waves.
Then his new team peppered his old friend - Ward - in the second, scoring twice in an early span of 3:27.
Zuccarello made it 1-1 just 96 seconds into the period when he beat Ward high with a wrist shot. Nash - with Brett Pesce hanging on his back - then beat Ward high to his glove side to make it 2-1 at 5:03.
Kreider gave the Rangers a short-lived 3-2 lead with 2:42 left in the second and 24 seconds into a hooking minor on Ron Hainsey, surging past Pesce and beating Ward to his glove side.
NOTES: Zuccarello has five points in his last five games. His 25th goal of the season was his 200th career point. ... Carolina LW Sergey Tolchinsky made his NHL debut and was in the starting lineup. He assisted on Faulk's goal for his first career point. ... Faulk's goal was his first since Feb. 5, though he missed 18 games since then with a lower-body injury.
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