The New York Rangers had the chance to sweep the Carolina Hurricanes, but former Ranger Brady Skjei kept his team alive.
The New York Rangers had the chance to sweep the Carolina Hurricanes and start their hopeful run to the Stanley Cup Final with a perfect 8-0 record, but a late power-play goal by the Carolina Hurricanes gave them a 4-3 win in Game 4.
Game 5 will be Monday night at 7 PM ET at Madison Square Garden.
Former Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei, with Ryan Lindgren in the penalty box, one-timed a Teuvo Teravainen pass from the right point high glove side at 16:49 of the third:
Here's how we got there:
Evgeny Kuznetsov got a busy first period started. After he picked off a Barclay Goodrow neutral zone pass, he beat Igor Shesterkin blocker side from the left dot just 1:51 into the hockey game to give the Hurricanes an early 1-0 lead:
A little under five minutes later, Stefan Noesen doubled the Hurricanes' lead to 2-0 after he sent home a rebound via a strong backhand finish after Teuvo Teravainen through the puck on net:
Will Cuylle got the Rangers on the board at 8:06 of the first after he beat Frederik Andersen glove side on the breakaway after Kaapo Kakko sprung him:
While the Rangers continued to push for the equalizer, Sebastian Aho got the Hurricanes back up two, making it a 3-1 score after he buried a wrist shot glove-side from the slot at 15:29 of the first period:
The Hurricanes outshot the Rangers 10-8 after the first period with their three goals the most they've scored in one game against Shesterkin, dating back to Game 1, a 4-3 Rangers' win.
The Rangers were outshot 13-12 in the second frame but did cut their deficit to one goal after Goodrow made up for his earlier mistake, deflecting home a Braden Schneider point shot at 12:43 of the second period:
Carolina held the lead after 40 minutes of play, but New York tied the affair in short order in the third.
After Zibanejad passed up a backhand shot on Andersen, he passed the puck to Alexis Lafreniere on the right side, who banked the puck from below the goal line off the back and in. Lafreniere's goal tied the game at three at 2:04 of the third:
The Rangers failed to remain perfect on the penalty kill, with Skjei's power-play game-winner goal the Hurricanes' first power-play goal of the series, now sitting 1-for-17 on the man advantage.
The Rangers will now have a chance to close out the series at home but will need to be a bit sharper with their decision-making to disallow the Hurricanes from continuing this series after Monday.