Hurricanes Lose Game 3 to Rangers in Overtime Stunner

Lost in the melee was that the Hurricanes took the lead just a couple of minutes before, off Jake Guentzel‘s fourth goal of the playoffs and third in his last two games. He deflected a shot past Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin from a great pass from Orlov to make it 1-0 Hurricanes halfway through the first period.

Gunetzel is showing why the Hurricanes went all-in at the trade deadline to bring in his playoff pedigree. In eight playoff games, he has four goals and eight points which puts him tied second on the team in points with Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svchnikov. Only Sebastian Aho has more with nine (two goals and seven assists).

Given his outstanding play, Carolina must find a way to keep Guentzel in Raleigh before he becomes an unrestricted free agent (UFA) this summer. His current deal is $6 million, and there’s a good chance he could get anywhere between $8 million to $9 million for his annual average value (AAV).

The Hurricanes fell behind later in the game when Kris Kreider scored a shorthanded goal in the second period, for his fourth of the postseason, after a two-on-one chance with Mika Zibanejad, who got his ninth assist of the playoffs. In the third period, the Rangers took the lead for the first time after Alexis Lafreniere scored a goal off the rush, beating Kochetkov for his third goal in two games.

As the game wound down, the Hurricanes had chance after chance to score on Shesterkin but nothing went in. With less than two minutes left, and Kochetkov out of the net, Carolina saw their chance to tie the game with the extra man. Svechnikov was in the right place at the right time to get the tying goal. PNC Arena exploded, and the crowd was fully back in it. In Game 3, Svechnikov was a one-man wrecking crew, with six hits (five in the first period alone) and was the only player to have a multi-point game (with a secondary assist on the Gunetzel goal). Furthermore, he had six shots while playing 16:53 minutes.

Svechnikov was the Hurricanes’ player of the game and came out ready to will his team back into the series and get a win on home ice. Unfortunately, the team fell short in overtime.

Hurricanes Power Play Is Powerless

For the third straight game, the Hurricanes had five power play opportunities but could not capitalize. After three games, the power play is now 0-for-15, which no one saw coming, especially for the team that finished 2nd in the NHL during the regular season with a 26.9% success rate. The penalty kill did well for Carolina in Game 3, going 4-for-4 on the night after a 5-for-9 success rate in the first two games. But the power play is what everyone is talking about.

After the game, captain Jordan Staal addressed his team’s power play struggles. “It’s a broken record,” he said. “Obviously, our special teams have got to be better. Our power play has to sneak in a couple of goals, or a goal or two, to get us in a better position to end games. The five-on-five game has been good. Have we completely buried teams? No, they’re a good team too.  There are a few things on the special teams side I think we can get better at. We’ll start with getting better at it tomorrow, and then we’ll find a way to win a game.”

Staal said it best. The power play needs to get better and start burying a couple of goals, especially with so many chances. Going 0-for-15 in three games is not going to get the job done, especially in the playoffs.

Head coach Rod Brind’Amour was also asked about the power play after the game. He stated: “We’re not executing very well. You have to give them credit, they’re doing a great job on the kill. I thought the first two-and-a-half power plays were actually quite good. A lot of good looks. Then we gave up that shorty and then we got away from what we were originally trying to do. Obviously, that’s three games in a row of the same story. I hate it for the guys because we’re playing I think really well. If you take (special teams) out of it, they’ve done everything that we’ve asked our guys to do…Our special players have to be special at the right times and that’s during the power play. That’s what’s missing here right now.”

You have to give the Rangers credit, they are shutting the Hurricanes down and showing why they had the third-best penalty-killing unit in the NHL (84.5%) this season. Carolina has had some chances and it looked good in the first half of Game 3, but once Kreider scored that shorthanded goal, it sucked the energy out of their power play. They again fell into the pattern of not scoring on the man advantage, which also hurt them in the first two games.

Brind’Amour Postgame

During the postgame press conference, The Hockey Writers asked Brind’Amour about the team still fighting in every game despite being down 3-0 in the series where he stated, “We’re focusing on how bad we’re playing,” he answered, “but we’re really playing pretty damn good. I look at that. I’m separating it. There’s two games going on here. If you want to write the right story, that’s what’s going on. We’re losing one (the special teams one) badly, but we’re doing pretty damn good on the other one. It’s just how can we figure out how to make (the special teams) story a little better? That’s the difference.”

Brind’Amour is spot-on about how his team is playing. At even strength, the Hurricanes play better than the Rangers, but when their special teams seem to suck the energy from the bench. It’s odd to see so many penalties in the playoffs. However, the team needs to capitalize on their chances.

The Hurricanes can score goals, and while they are struggling with the man advantage, we cannot overlook the positives. There is still hockey to be played, and the team simply must focus on the next game to get back into the series. It is a seven-game series for a reason.

Game 4 on Saturday

Game 4 is on Saturday at PNC Arena. The Hurricanes practiced on Friday and need just one win to keep their season alive. At this point, if they can get one good bounce on the power play, maybe the vibe will change. The series is not over, but the team has a huge hill to climb if they want to force a Game 5, 6, and hopefully 7. It all comes down to how Game 4 plays out on Saturday. The game will be televised on TNT, truTV, MAX, SportsNet and CBC at 7 pm Eastern. It can also be listened to on the radio at 99.9 The Fan for Hurricanes fans.