NEW YORK -- With two wins to open their three-game road trip, it was apparent the Panthers weren't going to let the opportunity for a rare sweep get away from them Saturday night.

A night after the Panthers won in Detroit, Florida was aggressive and dictated play from the start as they earned the sweep with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

``We started off well, like we wanted to, although we didn't get the goals or the breaks early in the game,'' Nathan Horton said.

``I think we kind of surprised them because they weren't ready to play. I thought we played good most of the night, got pucks to the net and got some lucky goals.''

The Panthers, who were at the bottom of the league standings 10 games into the season, have now pulled themselves back into the pack by winning eight of 11. Florida opened with a 6-2 win in Buffalo then followed with the franchise's first win in Detroit since 1996 on Friday night.

NO PARADES YET

There wasn't much celebration from the Panthers coach as he just looked relieved to have his team back on track.

``It's early in the season,'' Pete DeBoer said. ``I think the key to an NHL season is riding the tide of the highs and lows. In the first 10 games of the season I wasn't ready to jump off a bridge, and now I'm not ready to plan any parades.''

Saturday, one would have thought the Rangers were playing the second game of a back-to-back and not the Panthers. Florida outshot New York 12-7 in the opening period.

The Panthers played fast and furious early, only it was the Rangers who scored first with 5:49 left in the period. Florida came out with the same intensity in the second period, and Steven Reinprecht made it 1-1 at 8:46 when he corralled a loose puck the Rangers couldn't clear and backhanded it past Henrik Lundqvist.

Then it was Jordan Leopold's turn at one of the wackiest goals of the season.

With 9:51 left in the period, Leopold -- standing about 50 feet away from the net -- backhanded the puck toward the net. The shot was high and hit the ice and somehow bounced around and skipped past Lundqvist.

``It's up there with one where you bounce it off the glass, the goalie comes out to play it and it goes in,'' Leopold said with a grin. ``It went in, it counts and it's on the scoresheet. It got us a big win. It's great. I was just throwing it down to get something going down low.''

Said Lundqvist: ``I just lost it. Guys were waving their sticks, and it just bounced in front of me.''

KEEPING THE HEAT UP

The Panthers kept the heat up on the Rangers, who have lost three home games in a row to Southeast Division opponents by a combined 12-7.

In the third, Stephen Weiss broke free and came hard at Lundqvist and got a shot off as he was being pulled down by Dan Girardi.

Weiss' shot deflected off Lundqvist and Horton buried it.

The Rangers went hard at Tomas Vokoun, who had 32 saves, and the Panthers later in the third and got a Marian Gaborik goal. But Vokoun stood strong in a hectic final few minutes -- he stopped Sean Avery on successive shots with two minutes left -- to earn the win.

``We worked hard for the six points,'' Radek Dvorak said. ``We have a lot of games left. We know what works for us, and if we want to keep this going, we have to keep playing like this. It's nice, but we have to be ready for the next game.''