The Carolina Hurricanes are off to the first round of the playoffs!
The Hurricanes wrapped up their qualifying round series yesterday, sweeping the New York Rangers with a 4-1 win.
I truly was not expecting the Hurricanes to get the better goaltending in this series, but both Petr Mrazek and James Reimer were key in Carolina’s series victory. In a somewhat surprising decision, Reimer started Game 3 and was excellent, stopping 37 of 38 shots and making some ridiculous saves in the process. The Rangers probably should’ve had a multi-goal lead after the second period but Reimer was a difference-maker for Carolina.
Something that was probably overshadowed in the win, however: Sami Vatanen had a really rough game. There were certainly other players who didn't have their best game as well, but Vatanen was getting caught badly out of position or beaten cleanly by New York’s forwards far too often. Players were walking around him or outskating him and Reimer had to make some huge saves while Vatanen was on the ice (even though Vatanen did make one himself). I don’t mean to be negative after an important win, but Vatanen has to be better than that going forward.
On a more positive note, while the first line had a brutal first period, they rebounded after that and played a big part in the win. Sebastian Aho had two goals an assist, while Teuvo Teravainen picked up a goal as well and Andrei Svechnikov notched an assist. Near the end of the game, they did a great job shutting down New York after Aho’s goal and were able to keep the Rangers in their own end for the back half of the third period pretty much whenever they were on the ice.
The win means the Hurricanes will have a bit of a break before the first round and hopefully this means Dougie Hamilton will be back for Carolina’s next game. He’d provide a big boost to the Hurricanes’ defense group and would mean Vatanen can face some easier competition.
It certainly wasn’t a great game for the Hurricanes but Reimer came up big and kept the team in it for as long as he needed to. Now, we wait to see who Carolina will face in the first round.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Who should start for the Hurricanes in the first round?
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