The New York Rangers held on to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Sunday evening, taking a 1-0 series lead in Round 2.
The New York Rangers held on to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Sunday evening, taking a 1-0 series lead in Round 2.
Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves, 12 in the third. He has now won five straight games to start his postseason.
Here's how it happened:
The Rangers struck early in Game 1, making it 1-0 just 2:46 into the game after Jack Roslovic skated around the Hurricanes net before finding a cutting Mika Zibanejad:
Adam Fox earned the secondary assist.
But the Rangers' 1-0 lead was gone 1:44 later after a sputtering slapshot from Jaccob Slavin at the left point bounced on its way toward goal, taking a nasty hop in the slot before going right over the left shoulder of Shesterkin:
Sebastian Aho and Jake Guentzel recorded the assists.
The Rangers reclaimed the lead at 10:05 of the first when Zibanejad buried his second goal of the period, this time on the power play.
Chris Kreider made a tremendous spinning pass to find Zibanejad inside the left face-off dot, who fired the puck into an open goal:
Vincent Trocheck made it 3-1 with another power-play goal for the Rangers at 16:28 of the first. After Zibanejad fanned on his shot down low, Trocheck backhanded the puck into the net:
Kreider earned the secondary assist.
After the first period, shots were only 7-6 in favor of New York, but they led 3-1 on the scoreboard.
The second period brought about two power plays for the Hurricanes, but the Rangers killed it off, taking a 3-1 lead into the third period, up 17-12 in shots.
The Hurricanes got within one at 2:48 of the third after Martin Necas beat Shesterkin five-hole after a slick saucer pass from Jordan Martinook:
Dmitry Orlov recorded the secondary assist.
The Rangers took a 4-2 lead at 8:21 of the third after Artemi Panarin's off-the-rush shot from the left dot trickled off Andersen and in:
Alexis Lafreniere was given the secondary assist.
The Hurricanes made a one-goal game with 1:46 to play in the third after Seth Jarvis buried a loose puck to make it 4-3:
The Rangers put themselves in a terrible spot by taking a delay-of-game penalty in the final minute of the third but were bailed out when Andrei Svechnikov took a tripping penalty on the Rangers' defensive zone draw.
The Rangers survived the final 36 seconds for the win.
UP NEXT: The Rangers will host the Hurricanes for Game 2, with the time TBD
LINES:
Chris Kreider-Mika-Zibanejad-Jack Roslovic
Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alex Lafreniere
Will Cuyle-Alex Wennbgerg-Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey-Barclay Goodrow-Matt Rempe
Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller-Braden Schneider
Erik Gustafsson-Jacob Trouba
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick