NEW YORK _ The way things turned out, the Rangers seem to have picked the perfect game in which to have 20-year-old defenseman Ryan Lindgren make his NHL debut.
With several family members in the stands as the Rangers hosted the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night, Lindgren, the 6-foot, 201-pound rookie called up from AHL Hartford on Monday, broke into the NHL in a game in which the Rangers continued their weird dominance over the Hurricanes at the Garden, beating them, 6-2, to earn just their second victory in eight games in 2019. With the win, the Rangers extended their home winning streak against Carolina to 16 games. It is their longest home winning streak against any opponent.
Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich and Tony DeAngelo each had two goals _ Zibanejad also had two assists _ Mats Zuccarello had three assists, and the Rangers' power play went 3-for-3 as they improved to 19-20-7 (45 points) on the season. Henrik Lundqvist, who had given up 15 goals in his last three starts _ and was pulled in two of them _ made 34 saves to earn his first victory of the new year.
Lindgren, who was acquired from the Boston Bruins last February as part of the return in the trade of Rick Nash, is one of the young prospects the rebuilding Rangers are eagerly anticipating will be part of the franchise's turnaround. At the morning skate Tuesday, he described himself as a "hard-nosed, physical defenseman."
"It's kind of a cliche, but it really is a dream come true to finally get a call to come up and play in the NHL," Lindgren said.
Lindgren had five assists and 41 penalty minutes and a plus-minus rating of plus-7 in 36 games for Hartford. But Rangers coach David Quinn _ who ripped his team after Sunday's 7-5 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets _ refused to say that the Burnsville, Minn., native's reputation as a physical, hard-to-play-against defender was the reason he was called up when defenseman Freddie Claesson was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.
"Obviously, we talk a lot about what goes on in Hartford, and we've always felt that he had the best first half," Quinn said of Lindgren. "And obviously the 'compete' level is part of it, but he's been their best defenseman down there. He's earned this opportunity."
Lindgren, wearing jersey No. 55, was partnered on defense with Kevin Shattenkirk and certainly didn't seem overmatched in his first game, though he did have a welcome-to-the-NHL moment when he fumbled a puck in his own end and was forced to take his firs penalty, as Sebastian Aho scooped up the puck and went around him on his way to the goal. Lindgren whacked Aho's stick and was called for slashing, but the Rangers killed the penalty, and escaped the first period with a 3-1 lead, on the strength of two goals by Zibanejad _ one on a power play _ and one by DeAngelo, who played his 100th NHL game, and opened the scoring at 1:16. Saku Maenalanen scored for the Hurricanes.
Buchnevich, dropped to the fourth line, but playing on the first power play unit, made it 4-1 with his first goal of the game, and eighth of the season, at 3:41 of the second. His second goal, also on the power play, made it 5-1 at 4:19 of the third.
