It took four games, but the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes might finally have a series.
Through the first three contests, the discussion that surrounded this series was how successful the Rangers have been in the special teams department and how abysmal Carolina’s power play had been, going 0-for-15 entering Game 4.
But a 4-3 win for the Hurricanes on home ice finally gave them some hope.
After failing to score on their first attempt, which had quality puck movement and one or two strong scoring chances, Brady Skjei came through on the man advantage with 3:11 remaining in regulation to uplift Carolina to their first win of the series.
A moment of deflation for New York was a feeling of relief for Carolina, which can now build off of the momentum of seeing one go in on the power play.
“It was a tough time to give up the first one [on the penalty kill],” Rangers forward Barclay Goodrow said.
It’s been a month since the Rangers’ last loss, on April 11 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite the outcome, the group was proud of how they responded after falling in a 3-1 hole in the first period.
“We got to come out a little bit sharper than that,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We were competing, we were working, we were trying to do our job offensively, but there are some things defensively that I thought could have been a little better in the first period.”
The Rangers have been a dominant team throughout the playoffs, but the past two games have shown a lot about this group. After a tough first period on the road a few nights back, the Rangers had to win the second period to put themselves in a position to pull ahead. They did that again on Saturday night, but the magic finally ran out.
“The mindset was to go out and win the second period – we did that. That set it up for the third – we did that. It came down to a power play with three and a half or four minutes to go in a game and they were able to capitalize – that was the difference,” Laviolette said.
Outside of the first 10-15 minutes of that game, the Rangers were arguably the better team in Game 4. But that doesn’t matter if you can’t win the game, and now the Hurricanes have life for the first time in this best-of-seven series.
With this series shifting back to New York for Game 5, the Rangers feel like they have to get the job done.
“There’s a ton of stress,” Brind’Amour said jokingly. “You can’t win four games tonight, you can’t even think about it, but you can just go do your job, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it. I haven’t been at all disappointed in how we’ve played.”
The Rangers now have to shift their focus on taking Carolina’s momentum away. The Rangers are 4-0 at Madison Square Garden during the 2024 playoffs, while the Hurricanes are 4-13 on the road dating back to 2022.
“You got to win one at home,” Rangers defender Adam Fox said. “They’re not gonna go down easy and just give us that fourth win. We’re definitely gonna have to earn it – I think this group has shown all year how resilient we are. I’m pretty confident how we’ll respond.”
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