Erik Cole scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 3:59 left in the Carolina Hurricanes' 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers 4-3 on Friday night.
Jeff Skinner, the youngest player in the NHL at 18 years, 5 months, had a big night, scoring twice and playing a pivotal role in Cole's tally.
Skinner drew the hooking penalty by New York's Brian Boyle that put Carolina on the power play. Skinner then made the pass to set up a wide-open Cole for the winner.
Tuomo Ruutu also scored for Carolina and Cam Ward made 40 saves
Ryan Callahan, Marc Stall and Brandon Dubinsky scored for New York. Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves for the Rangers, 1-3-1 at Madison Square Garden.
Ruutu scored the only goal of the first period as the Hurricanes regrouped from a slow start. It looked like a long night for the road weary Hurricanes who started the season in Europe and have played only one game at home in nine contests.
Ruutu connected on the power play with 4:31 left in the period, hammering home the rebound of Anton Babchuk's booming point shot. It was only the second power-play goal for the Hurricanes in the last six games.
The Rangers dominated early, holding a 9-2 edge in shots. New York had a goal waived off about a minute in when the referees ruled Michael Del Zotto kicked the puck past Ward. The Rangers later hit a post and a crossbar before taking a pair of penalties that titled the momentum in the Hurricanes favor.
Ruutu cashed in the second man-advantage and Carolina finished the period with a 12-11 shot advantage.
Skinner took advantage of a lucky bounce to put the Hurricanes up 2-0 only 56 seconds into the second. As players battled for control behind the Rangers net, the puck bounced off New York defenseman Michal Rozsival's skate and landed in the high slot where Skinner hammered it home.
Callahan and Marc Staal both scored on the power play as the Rangers evened it at 2. The bounces went the Rangers way on Callahan's goal as the puck hit him in the skate and popped in the air and he bunted it home at 4:06.
Stall connected at 12:24, but Skinner struck again 55 seconds later.
Marc Stall turned the puck over at his own blue line and Skinner broke in alone on Lundqvist, showing forehand before whipping a backhander into the net putting Carolina ahead 3-2.
The Rangers got final tally of the five-goal period as Dubinsky rang a shot off the post and into the net behind Ward at 15:43 to even the score at 3-3.
The Rangers outshot the Hurricanes 18-8 in the wide-open second period.
Both goalies were sharp in the third.
Ward stopped a point-blank stop from Derek Stepan midway through, and Lundqvist stopped Chad Larose on a 2-on-1 break and then stopped Cole on a close-in bid before he got the deciding tally.
