Rookie Sebastian Aho scored the go-ahead power-play goal with 7:32 remaining, and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied to beat the Rangers 4-3 on Thursday night.
Aho also scored the tying goal with 10:56 to play and added an assist to help the last-place Hurricanes.
Jeff Skinner also scored, Valentin Zykov had a goal in his first NHL game and Cam Ward made a season-best 40 saves.
Carolina trailed 3-2 entering the third before earning just its fifth win when trailing after 40 minutes.
Mika Zibanejad scored two power-play goals, Chris Kreider added a power-play goal and an assist for the short-handed Rangers, who were without injured goalie Henrik Lundqvist and winger Rick Nash.
Backup Antti Raanta made 26 saves for the Rangers, who sat Lundqvist with an upper-body injury and Nash with a lower-body injury.
The key to the win was Aho, a bright spot in another otherwise lost season for Carolina. The 19-year-old entered ranked third among rookies with 18 goals before adding two more.
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With Zibanejad serving a slashing minor, Aho took a pretty cross-ice pass from Jordan Staal and beat Raanta for the go-ahead goal.
That came moments after he made it 3-all on a power play midway through the third period with a shot that got past Raanta, who was screened by Elias Lindholm. The Rangers challenged, arguing that Lindholm interfered with the goalie, but the goal was confirmed following a review.
Derek Stepan rang the post with about 3½ minutes remaining and Ward stopped Tanner Glass from point-blank range with about 2 minutes to play to preserve the win.
Zibanejad scored two power-play goals in the second period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead, first stuffing a rebound past Ward with 12:44 left and then snapping a shot off Ward's blocker and into the net.
Carolina had erased an early 1-0 deficit by scoring twice in a 29-second span of the first, with Skinner tying it with a backhand with 6:45 left and Zykov putting the Hurricanes up with a goal with 6:16 to go when he stuffed in a rebound.
NOTES: The Rangers, playing their third game in four nights, fell to 23-3-0 when leading after two periods. ... Stepan and Staal each had two assists. ... The Rangers recalled G Brandon Halverson from Greenville of the ECHL as the emergency fill-in in Lundqvist's absence. ... Zykov's goal came on his first NHL shot.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Conclude four-game road trip Sunday at Detroit.
Hurricanes: Wrap up a brief two-game homestand Saturday night against Toronto.
