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.
