(Raleigh) The Carolina Hurricanes once again muzzled the New York Rangers offense to win 2-0 on Friday night.
Posted at 11:03 p.m.
Very effective at home, the Hurricanes shut out Rangers in the last 116 minutes and five seconds. Filip Chytil opened the scoring in Game 1 of the series, but since then it’s been a drought for the NHL’s fifth-best offense this season.
The North Carolina team has improved its record in front of its fans to 6-0 since the start of the playoffs. She only allowed a total of seven goals in those games.
Brendan Smith scored on the penalty kill and Sebastian Aho completed the scoring in an empty net for Rod Brind’Amour’s men.
Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta was perfect in front of 21 shots to record a first career playoff shutout.
The Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead in this series and will be looking for their first road win since the start of the spring tournament. They had suffered three losses at TD Garden in Boston during the first round.
The next duel will take place on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
Igor Shesterkin tried everything for Rangers, but his attack didn’t help. The Russian stopped 20 of the 21 pucks aimed at him.
The Rangers squandered four chances on the power play and even allowed the first goal of the game in this facet of the game.
While Brady Skjei was in the dungeon for four minutes due to a high stick against Quebecer Alexis Lafrenière, the Hurricanes took advantage of a poor reading of Mika Zibanejad’s game to bring themselves to two against one.
Aho was patient and he passed the puck between the legs of defenseman Adam Fox to join Smith, who eluded Shesterkin’s vigilance by redirecting the puck.