Zibanejad sparks Rangers to Game 1 win against Hurricanes | NHL.com
"As an offensive guy, you want to get involved and when you score and you're able to contribute to a win, and help your team win, that's a good feeling," Zibanejad said. "But it's one game. We've just got to keep going."
Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist, and Chris Kreider had two assists for the Rangers, who are the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan Division and have yet to lose this postseason (5-0). Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves.
New York is the fourth Presidents' Trophy winner to win at least its first five games to start a postseason, something it also did in 1994 (started 7-0), when it won the Stanley Cup.
"Playoffs for me is completely game to game," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We're going to have to take a look at what we did right, try to bring that back to the table. … We're going to have to elevate our game as well."
Jaccob Slavin, Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis scored, and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes, the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan. Frederik Andersen made 19 saves.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is in New York on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS).
The Hurricanes were 0-for-2 on the penalty kill and 0-for-5 on the power play after finishing first on the penalty kill (86.4 percent) and second on the power play (26.9 percent) during the regular season.
"It's clear our start and our special teams were the difference tonight, and we've always talked about that all year long," Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. "… You win that battle you have a really good chance of winning, and we didn't tonight. Both of them weren't good enough, obviously."
