Henrik Lundqvist comes up big for Rangers

Rick Nash scored in the third round of the shootout and Henrik Lundqvist stopped all three attempts as the Rangers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Hurricanes last night at the Garden.

Mats Zuccarello and Alexander Semin were stopped in the first round. Lee Stempniak was denied in the second, as was Chris Terry. Lundqvist then denied Ryan Murphy for the victory.

Derick Brassard, Nash's former teammate in Columbus, said: "When your third shooter is Nash, and he's got six goals so far, you're pretty confident. He's hot right now." Nash improved to 30-for-79 (38%) in his career in shootout attempts.

Trailing 1-0 in the third period, Brassard scored his third of the season after he tipped Zuccarello's deflection of Dan Girardi's shot past Anton Khudobin at 9:40.

One game after they fired 43 shots against Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak, the Rangers managed 31 in regulation against Khudobin and the tight-checking Hurricanes, who broke a scoreless tie at 16:53 of the second period when Terry's wrister from above the left circle deflected in off the stick of Lundqvist (29 saves). It was Terry's third goal of the season.

Carolina played without two centers -- brothers Eric and Jordan Staal -- and Jeff Skinner, who scored 33 goals last season, forward Patrick Dwyer and defenseman Andrej Sekera.