NHL: New York Rangers eliminate Carolina Hurricanes with a 6-2 win

Monday, 30 May 2022. 22:42

SUMMARY

The Carolina Hurricanes lost their invincibility screen at home at the wrong time and the New York Rangers managed to break through this wall that seemed unstoppable since the start of the playoffs to take the honors of Game 7 and reach the final. of the Eastern Association.

The Rangers defeated the Hurricanes 6-2 on Monday and will now face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.

New York rallied from a two-game deficit to eventually claim this series honors.

Things have in no way turned in favor of the Hurricanes who have been able since the opening of the playoffs to block the neutral zone to slow down the opponents. This time, the team partly built by the new vice-president of hockey operations at the Montreal Canadiens Jeff Gorton took advantage of its opportunities to advance to the next round.

Chris Kreider led the Rangers attack with two goals while Mika Zibanejad had three assists.

The game was played in two parts for the Hurricanes who had not lost a single playoff game this season in seven games at home. The first period was marked by indiscipline from the Canes, which allowed Rangers to score twice to quickly put the hosts under pressure.

Adam Fox first beat Antti Raanta at 3:40 in the first period on a power play while Sebastian Aho was in the dungeon. Fox scored with a wrist shot from the side of the mitt. Quebecer Alexis Lafrenière collected an assist on the sequence.

Jacob Trouba claimed another victim for the Hurricanes when he hit Seth Jarvis hard at 12:25 of the first period. Stunned, Jarvis returned to his bench by moving on his knees. On the sequence Carolina was penalized for having had too many men on the ice. Jarvis left and did not return thereafter.

This check led to a penalty that was decisive in the outcome of the game since Chris Kreider wasted no time in deflecting the puck into the enemy net at 8:00 on a pass from Mika Zibanejad and thus added his own in advance.

The Hurricanes tried to come back into the game, but they lost the services of their goaltender Antti Raanta at 15:37 of the second period. The goalkeeper appeared to have injured his groin while moving to his right and left the game never to return.

Rangers were quick to test Raanta’s successor Pyotr Kochetkov who was quickly outmaneuvered by Ryan Strome who beat him with a wrist shot from the side of the glove, nothing to raise the morale of the troops among the Hurricanes.

In the third period, Kreider all but ended Carolina’s hopes with a superb goal. He beat Kochetkov with a backhand shot after grabbing the puck in the neutral zone and outpacing the enemy defense by cutting in front of the net to lodge the puck in the net.

Tony DeAngelo gave Hurricanes fans some hope with a goal 8:11 of the third when he beat goaltender Igor Shesterkin, but just 40 seconds later, Filip Chytil brought Carolina down to earth by capitalizing on a turnover in the offensive zone to beat Kochetkov and restore the Rangers’ four-goal lead.

Max Domi hit the target late in the third when the game was already out of reach for Carolina. Then, Andrew Copp added an empty net goal.

With an assist, Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller became only the fourth defenseman 22 or younger to record a point in more than a seventh game. He joins Kevin Hatcher (WSH in 1988), Michael Del Zotto (NYR in 2012), and Colton Parayko (STL in 2016).