Playing their third game in four days, the Carolina Hurricanes will look to close out their qualifying round series against the New York Rangers tonight.
The big piece of news is that Igor Shesterkin will be starting for the Rangers. After being unfit to play in the first two games, this goaltending change could make things interesting. Shesterkin had a 10-2 record and .932 save percentage in 12 games with New York this season.
Igor Shesterkin starts tonight for the Rangers. Brendan Lemieux is in tonight for Steven Fogarty.
That said, the Hurricanes have received some quality goaltending of their own, with Petr Mrazek stopping 47 of 50 shots in the series for a .940 save percentage.
Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov are both off to strong starts as well, with Aho collecting a goal and five points in the first two games, while Svechnikov has three goals and an assist to show for. On the back end, Jaccob Slavin and Sami Vatanen have been quite strong on the top pairing.
For the Rangers, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad are the only players on the team with more than a single point in the series, though neither has been a good as expected. The only player on the team with a positive shots for percentage is Adam Fox (according to NaturalStatTrick.com).
Despite giving up a power play goal to the Rangers in Game 2, Carolina has also successfully killed 10 of 11 penalties in the series.
Puck drop is at 8 p.m.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Will Igor Shesterkin be a difference-maker for the Rangers?
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