The Carolina Hurricanes are now one win away from the first round of the NHL playoffs, after defeating the New York Rangers 4-1, to take a 2-0 lead in their qualifying round series.
Despite not starting as strong as they did in Game 1, the Hurricanes put together another good effort. The top line made up the majority of Carolina’s offense, with Andrei Svechnikov scoring a hat trick and Sebastian Aho picking up three assists. Aho and Svechnikov combined for seven shots and were highly effective on the rush but also got their share of chances while set up in the zone.
There is another line, however, that is more having an excellent series as well: the fourth line.
Here is each member of the fourth line and their corsi for and against at even strength in the series so far (stats from NaturalStatTrick.com):
Morgan Geekie: 24-4 (85.7%)
Brock McGinn: 23-7 (76.7%)
Jordan Martinook: 23-9 (71.9%)
The fourth line is dominating possession when they’re on the ice and Morgan Geekie is certainly fitting in well. So while their line has only combined for one goal in the series so far, watch out for them going forward.
I was also impressed by the effort level from the forward group as a whole once again, as pretty much every player was forechecking hard and putting pressure on New York’s defensemen to create turnovers.
Another name that needs to be brought up, however, is Petr Mrazek. I was in favour of starting James Reimer over Mrazek for the playoffs, but did Mrazek ever have a great game today. The Hurricanes were giving up some good chances early, which resulted in Mrazek having to make a huge glove save in the first period on Brett Howden, then another big glove save when Mika Zibanejad was in alone. The Rangers continued to get chances in the second period and Mrazek was up to the challenge, sliding across the net to make a great save on Brendan Smith. He stopped 23 of 24 shots and if he hadn’t been as sharp as he was early on, Carolina could’ve been in trouble.
Having said that, the Hurricanes were the better team overall again and deserved this win.
Carolina will have a chance to wrap up the series in Game 3 tomorrow night.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
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