NHL Game Summary - NY Rangers at Winnipeg

Winnipeg, MB (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Kreider scored the winner late in the third period and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 32 pucks as the New York Rangers clipped Winnipeg, 3-2, at MTS Centre.

Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard also lit the lamp for the Rangers, who had dropped three of four coming in. Lundqvist earned his first win since Feb. 2, the last game in which he appeared before his lengthy sabbatical due to a neck injury.

"It feels good for a couple reasons," said Lundqvist. "It was an important game for us."

Jim Slater and Lee Stempniak produced offense for the Jets, who have lost three of four. Ondrej Pavelec made 21 saves in the setback.

"This team is going to keep battling," said Slater.

Winnipeg, which retained the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference, remained only two points ahead of idle Los Angeles.

Kreider burst forth up the middle, cruised by Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien and beat Pavelec inside the right post with a backhander, then crashed into the net with 3:46 left in the contest.

Pavelec was on the bench for an extra skater with more than a minute to go, but Byfuglien committed a slashing penalty on the next shift which derailed the hosts' comeback effort.

Slater opened the scoring for the hosts at 3:16 by chopping his own rebound home at the right post before Zuccarello evened things just shy of the midway point of the first by netting a Brassard rebound.

Stempniak's strike from the left circle at 1:24 of the second moved the Jets in front again, but Brassard countered on a power play with a drive through a Rick Nash screen from the left wing at 10:13.