The Carolina Hurricanes find themselves trailing in their second round series against the New York Rangers, after falling 4-3 in Game 1 yesterday.
The Hurricanes fell behind early, when Jack Roslovic drove around the net with speed and found Mika Zibanejad in front, who beat Frederik Andersen to open the scoring. However, only about a minute later, Jaccob Slavin put a shot on net from the point, and it took a wild bounce off a deflection to find its way past Igor Shesterkin, quickly tying the game.
Carolina had a power play opportunity afterwards where Martin Necas hit a post, but the Hurricanes couldn’t capitalize. That opened the door for New York to re-take the lead on a power play of their own, with Zibanejad taking a pass from Chris Kreider to score his second of the game only nine seconds into the penalty, making it 2-1.
Another power play for the Hurricanes followed, but once again, after they couldn’t capitalize, the Rangers took advantage on their own man advantage shortly after, with Vincent Trocheck burying a pass from Zibanejad in-close only 13 seconds into this power play opportunity, putting the Rangers ahead 3-1.
So while the Hurricanes looked pretty good at even strength, they got burned with their penalties to find themselves in a hole.
Carolina ended up with yet another power play early in the second period but failed to score again, before Jordan Staal missed wide on a breakaway, in what was one of Caorlina’s better opportunities. A fourth power play chance for the Hurricanes followed later in the period, but once again, they came up empty handed and failed to make any progress in chipping away at the Rangers’ lead.
Martin Necas did cut the lead in half early in the third period though, taking a pass from Jordan Martinook to go in alone and beat Shesterkin.
However, only about five minutes later, Artemi Panarin came in on a rush with some speed an managed to squeak a shot under Andersen’s arm, reinstating the two-goal lead on a shot that the netminder would probably want to have back.
Carolina did press late to try to get back into the game with the net empty, and after quite a bit of offensive zone pressure, Seth Jarvis got to a puck in a scramble and tapped it in to put the Hurricanes back within one. Then when Vincent Trocheck took a delay of game penalty with a puck over the glass, the Hurricanes had a golden opportunity to tie the game with 45 seconds left at 6-on-4.
However, right off the faceoff, Andrei Svechnikov took a tripping penalty to negate the power play, quickly deflating that momentum. The Rangers hung on from there, taking Game 1 with a 4-3 win.
I think this was a relatively close game at even strength, with both teams having their chances. What sunk the Hurricanes was the special teams battle, which couldn’t have been more lopsided.
Carolina failed to capitalize on any of their power play chances, going 0-for-5 on the man advantage. While I don’t think there’s reason for future concern with that stat, given their power play success in the regular season, along with the first round, it’s a tough look when the Rangers had the success they did.
New York went 2-for-2 on the man advantage with their first period goals, which quickly put the Hurricanes into a hole. We know the Rangers’ power play is one of the most dangerous units in the league, but especially after a first round series where Carolina’s top-ranked penalty kill looked a little mediocre against the Islanders, it’s a bit troubling to see that kind of a start in Game 1. The Hurricanes can't expect to get a lot of help from weak goals on Shesterkin in the series, so if they fall behind after allowing power play goals early, they’ll always struggle to catch up.
In other notes, the Rangers’ goals all came from the expected suspects as well, in Zibanejad, Trocheck and Panarin. We know New York counts on most of their offense coming from the top of the forward group, and finding a way to slow them down a bit is key for the rest of the series. Meanwhile, Frederik Andersen didn’t have much of a chance on the first three goals, but the Panarin one was a little soft.
Carolina’s top line looked good, as did the Martinook-Drury-Necas line, but the fourth line was a little quiet. We’ll see if Rod Brind’Amour opts to swap anyone around.
Regardless, it wasn’t a poor first game for the Hurricanes, and the effort was generally there, they just really got crushed in the special teams battle. If that trend continues, they’re in deep trouble, but the hope is it’s simply a one-off.
In somewhat unrelated news: Jordan Staal was announced as a Selke Trophy finalist for this season ahead of the second round, while Jaccob Slavin was announced as a Lady Byng finalist. Obviously, not the main hardware target for either player at this time of year, but both pieces of news were a nice recognition of two key pieces for Carolina.
The Hurricanes are back in action tomorrow for Game 2.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM THE SERIES
- Previewing Round 2: Hurricanes vs. Rangers
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