The New York Rangers took a stranglehold on the Carolina Hurricanes with a 3-0 lead in their second-round series thanks to a 3-2 overtime win on Thursday night.
It was an absolute heartbreaker for the Hurricanes, who tied things up with 1:36 to go in the third period, to the absolute delight of their raucous home crowd in Raleigh. But fewer than two minutes into overtime, Artemi Panarin deflected one in to give New York the win, sucking the air out of PNC Arena.
This is the seventh straight win for New York, who are perfect these playoffs after sweeping Washington in Round 1.
Carolina badly outshot New York for the third straight game, and got nothing in return for its efforts. Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was again his team’s best player.
Here are our takeaways from New York’s incredible seventh straight playoff win:
Good start for the Canes, Guentzel heating up
This game felt promising for Carolina early on, and it was Jake Guentzel who gave the Hurricanes the 1-0 lead midway through the first, tipping in a Dmitry Orlov point shot.
The Caniac fans lost it and the smoke machines went off after that, and PNC Arena was rocking.
The 29-year-old Guentzel is heating up, as he’s been known to do this time of year, with three goals in the last two games. He now has 65 points in 65 career playoff games.
Bad blood
There was a bit of an on-ice rumble late in the first, and it resulted in four penalties — two for each team.
It started when Rangers centre Barclay Goodrow skated in hard and gave Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov a poke on the glove, and that set everybody off. Jimmy Vesey went after Orlov. Goodrow starting yapping at the Hurricanes bench, who had plenty to say back. A bunch of skirmishes went on, and then Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Vesey threw their gloves down to fight, but the refs quickly broke that up.
During a TV timeout, Hurricanes defender Tony DeAngelo dropped his gloves while he was standing in front of his bench, yelling at a bunch of Rangers standing in front of their bench.
Tensions were high.
Big test for Kochetkov
After two straight losses to open this series, the Hurricanes opted to give Frederik Andersen a rest, and turned to Kochetkov.
It marked Kochetkov’s first game this post-season, and his second playoff start ever. The 24-year-old Russian netminder hadn’t started a game since April 14.
He wasn’t tested a whole lot early, but Kochetkov came up with some big saves in the game, including a beautiful poke-check on Filip Chytil, who returned to New York’s lineup after being out with an injury since January.
Kochetkov gave his team a chance to win on Thursday, and had 22 saves in the loss.
Shorty equalizer
As if the Hurricanes power play wasn’t woeful enough — 0-14 in this series so far — the Rangers tied things up in the second period while a man down.
Off a broken play, Mika Zibanejad picked up the puck off the boards and headed up the left wing, while Chris Kreider drove to the net like a rocket. Zibanejad hit him with a nice little saucer pass, which Kreider deflected off his backhand to beat Kochetkov five-hole.
Kreider then launched himself into the glass in celebration — a 32-inch vertical, as measured by Sportsnet’s Hockey Central panel. None of the Carolina fans in those front rows liked that jump one bit.
Kreider now has three goals in the last two games.
Quick release go-ahead goal
Panarin fought off a check and managed to shovel a backhand pass over to Alexis Lafreniere, and the 22-year-old got his wrist shot off immediately, firing it through the legs of the defender, and into the top corner, glove side, to give the Rangers their first lead in this game, 6:25 into the third.
It was Lafreniere’s third goal of the post-season, and he’s now riding a four-game point streak.
There were a few Rangers fans sitting in the front row, and they were all on their feet, and an amped-up Lafreniere skated over there during his celebration and yelled, “What’s up!” while he got hugs from his teammates.
What was up? The Rangers were, 2-1.
Svechnikov comes up huge
The game-tying goal came from just the guy you expected to pot it: Andrei Svechnikov.
The winger had been buzzing all game, creating opportunities with his size and speed and hands, and this one came after Carolina had pulled their goalie, with just 1:36 on the clock and fans on their feet.
Svechnikov pounced on a rebound in the slot and beat Svechnikov on the blocker side, sending those fans into an absolute tizzy and eventually sending this game into overtime.
Breadman the OT hero
Last game’s hero in double-OT, Vincent Trochek, picked up a rim around the boards and dished it over to Panarin, and with a quick deflection, that was that. This one was over just 1:43 into overtime.
Panarin ran on the ice, then pretended to kick a field goal just before his teammates covered him with hugs.
Game 4 is Saturday at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on Sportsnet at PNC Arena.
