Andrew Cogliano scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, Jonathan Bernier made 25 saves and the Anaheim Ducks won their fourth straight game by defeating Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers 6-3 on Sunday night.
Patrick Eaves scored two goals and Ryan Getzlaf had four assists as Anaheim moved two points ahead of idle San Jose and Edmonton for first place in the Pacific Division with seven games remaining.
Josh Manson had a short-handed goal and Ryan Kesler scored on the power play for the Ducks, who improved to 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
Lundqvist made 28 saves in his first start since suffering a hip injury on March 7, and Brady Skjei, Derek Stepan and Rick Nash each scored for the Rangers. New York could have clinched a playoff spot with a win.
Cogliano alertly raced in to score on a rebound after a faceoff between Kesler and Stepan sent the puck off Lundqvist, and Eaves doubled the Ducks' lead 2:04 later.
Nick Ritchie added an empty-net goal with 1:38 remaining.
After scoring an empty-netter late in the Rangers' win at Los Angeles on Saturday, it didn't take Nash long to extend his streak of games with a goal to four. Nash kept the whole way on a break alongside Jimmy Vesey and fired a shot that Bernier slowed but never fully stopped, with the puck trickling through his legs and in for a 1-0 lead in favor of the Rangers.
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Eaves tied it 3:01 later, cleaning up Cam Fowler's rebound, and has scored six goals in 13 games since being traded from Dallas to Anaheim.
It was a 3-on-1 break that led to the Rangers' second goal after Manson both lost his footing and the puck in the offensive zone. Stepan, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider used some crisp passes to keep Bernier moving, allowing Stepan to finish at the near post.
Stepan picked up his second goal in as many games, while Zuccarello added an assist for nine points in his last eight games.
But the Ducks responded again, tying it at 2 with exactly 2:00 to play in the first through their beleaguered power play when Kesler tipped in Sami Vatanen's cannon blast of a slap shot. The play stood as first called after a video review showed Kesler holding the stick at his shoulders, good enough for his team-leading eighth power-play goal.
The Ducks broke out of an 0-for-16 funk on the power play.
The Ducks and Rangers kept trading goals in the second, with Manson's short-handed score that briefly put Anaheim in front canceled out by Skjei's fifth career goal.
NOTES: Getzlaf has 20 points in his last 12 games. ... Mika Zibanejad recorded two assists, giving him five over his last three games. ... The Rangers scratched D Dan Girardi, who had missed 12 games with ankle injury before returning to play 20:03 with an assist against the Kings.
UP NEXT
Rangers: at San Jose on Tuesday night.
Ducks: at Vancouver on Tuesday night.
