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The Carolina Hurricanes came up short in Game 3 of their second round series against the New York Rangers today, falling 3-1.
The Hurricanes had a strong start, generating some really good chances on an early power play and outshooting the Rangers 7-0 to start the game. However, New York started to battle back as the period went along and on a power play of their own, Mika Zibanejad managed to beat Antti Raanta, putting the Rangers ahead. It was a pretty even period after that with both teams getting some chances, but it remained 1-0 New York after the opening frame.
Chris Kreider put the Rangers up by two only six minutes into the second frame, picking a corner with a great shot from a bad angle. Nino Niederreiter did get the Hurricanes on the board only about two minutes later with a pretty brutal goal on Igor Shesterkin and Carolina really pressed, putting 18 shots on net in the period, but New York still took a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
It was a fairly even third period, with the Hurricanes getting a couple good chances but not really able to sustain consistent pressure. Carolina tried to tie it late but really didn’t generate any good chances with Raanta out of the net and with a bit over a minute remaining, Tyler Motte backhanded a puck down ice and scored on the empty net, on route to a 3-1 Rangers win.
We saw some fireworks after the game as well, with Max Domi and Ryan Lindgren going at each other, then Tony DeAngelo exchanging words with Gerard Gallant.
Regardless, the Hurricanes came up short and it’s now a 2-1 series. To their credit, Carolina did outshoot the Rangers by a 44-33 margin and had an especially strong front 40 minutes.
That said, their power play continues to be poor in the playoffs and basically useless on the road. The Hurricanes also fell to 0-4 in road games this postseason, which is a pretty troubling stat. Even though it was a pretty solid effort, Carolina had trouble converting on their chances near the end of the year and this was another example of that.
The Hurricanes will still have a chance to take a commanding 3-1 series lead on Tuesday, when the teams are back in action for Game 4.
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