(Raleigh) The Carolina Hurricanes once again imposed their dominance at home and defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 on Thursday night to take a 3-2 series lead.
Posted at 9:55 p.m.
Not only have the Hurricanes won all seven home games in this playoff, they’ve held their opponent to two goals in all games this streak.
Vincent Trocheck, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov scored for Rod Brind’Amour’s men.
Mika Zibanejad was Rangers’ only goalscorer.
Antti Raanta was lightly busy, turning aside 16 shots in the win.
His vis-à-vis, Igor Shesterkin, made 31 saves.
The series will return to New York for Game 6 on Saturday.
The Hurricanes will have the chance to get their ticket to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals. The last time the Hurricanes reached the semi-finals was in 2019 when they were swept by the Boston Bruins.
The Hurricanes opened the scoring shorthanded at 12:57 in the first period. Jordan Staal scrambled down the wing before delivering a perfect overhead pass to Trocheck. The latter only had to redirect the puck into the net.
The Rangers’ power play, however, found its way back a few minutes later. Just after a face-off, Artemi Panarin handed over the Zibanejad disc which fired on reception from the top of the face-off circles. The Swedish center has hit the mark in the last three meetings.
In the second period, Ryan Strome thought he was giving the Rangers the lead when he rattled the ropes with a low shot while turning on himself. The goal, however, was overturned due to offside.
The Huricanes regained their lead halfway through the game. Teravainen accepted the snap from Seth Jarvis and headed a shot into the top of the net on the power play.
With the odds on either side in the third period, Svechnikov gave the Hurricanes a two-goal cushion with a great breakaway move. He slipped the puck between Shesterkin’s pads.