The Rangers took a 3-0 lead in the second round thanks in large part to special teams that proved completely superior to Carolina’s.
But to achieve the decisive victory in the series, it was not enough.
And that wasn’t the case Monday, when the shots on goal continued to play great hockey and the Rangers still lost 4-1 to send the series back to Raleigh for a suddenly very nervy Game 6.
The Hurricanes still haven’t figured out how to score on the power play, something they failed to do three times, with Brady Skjei’s Game 4 winner serving only as inspiration for a shorthanded goal digital by Jacob Trouba.
And that mattered after a string of five-on-five goals for Carolina in the third, courtesy of Jordan Staal, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jordan Martinook.
“At the end of the game, I thought they were smart in just getting pucks out of their zone,” Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought we weren’t really connecting on our forecheck. It was a quick pass from D to D and they had a chance to get the puck out. It’s definitely not our best-executed play.
A bad period in a bad match, for sure. But that was consistent with the trend line of the series, during which Carolina outscored the Rangers 11-9 at even strength.
In the first three games, it was canceled, then partly thanks to special teams.
It didn’t help matters Monday that the power play, which had been firing on all cylinders earlier in the series, suddenly looked a little off, going a third straight scoreless game and never moving the puck as quickly as the Rangers would like it. .
But this game was lost at even strength, where the Rangers never really got a foothold in the game and where, scores aside, it’s unclear if they ever really got a foothold in the series.
“We weren’t precise,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was more than the third period.”
If there’s any reason for the Hurricanes to believe they can do something historic, to believe they can knock out the Rangers by winning the next two games to mount a comeback, it’s that they can now feel, with some justification, that a facade has been lifted. Rangers.
Laviolette, who repeatedly said that this defeat was not just due to a lackluster third period, seemed to be someone well aware of this possibility, even if his conviction was still intact.
“Any time they’re not up to your standards, it worries you, yes,” he said. “What I also know about this group is that they have played games like this before and they responded. This implies responsibility on their part, for themselves and for us. There are things we need to do better and we will.
The Rangers might be able to survive with a mediocre five-on-five game and they might be able to survive with a middling power play. There’s no way they can survive with both, and that’s what these last two games have presented.
And now all the pressure is on them.
New York Post
