Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Rangers Defeat Hurricanes 4-2 in Thanksgiving Eve Showdown

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Zach Martin | Last updated Nov 26, 2025 10:15 PM ET

The Carolina Hurricanes hosted the New York Rangers the day before Thanksgiving for their second meeting of the season. The 14-6-2 Hurricanes were looking to get back into the win column after seeing their five-game point streak snapped on Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres. The 11-11-2 Rangers looked to make it two wins in a row after beating the St. Louis Blues in their recent game. After the final horn, the Rangers defeated the Hurricanes 4-2.

Game Recap

The first period saw the Hurricanes outshoot the Rangers 13-4 in the first 20 minutes of the game. However, it was a Noah Laba goal that put the Rangers out 1-0 just a tad over three minutes left in the opening frame. He threw the puck onto the net and got it over the shoulder of Frederik Andersen, who had no chance to stop the upper 90 placement of the shot. Despite controlling most of the tempo, the Hurricanes went into the first intermission down 1-0.

The Rangers dominated at the faceoff dot, going 13/21 (61.9%) against the Hurricanes. Rod Brind’Amour’s team is without their captain, Jordan Staal, who’s one of the toughest guys to go against on faceoffs. Other than that, the Hurricanes tilted the ice for the most part in the first period.

The second period saw a pair of goals, one from each side. For the second game in a row, Shayne Gostisbehere scored on the power play to tie the game 1-1 for the Hurricanes. It was his third goal of the season, and his 15th point in 14 games played. He’s been over a point per game player when healthy and drawing into games. It seemed that the game would go into the second intermission tied 1-1; however, Rangers’ Artemi Panarin scored his seventh goal of the season with a snapshot that got past Andersen. While the Hurricanes outshot the Rangers 24-13 after 40 minutes, they were down 2-1 after two periods.

The third period saw three goals in the final frame, two of them from the Rangers. Their first goal of the period came from former Hurricane Vincent Trocheck. He got a pass from Panarin and sniped it on Andersen to make it a 3-1 Rangers lead just 45 seconds into the period. Seth Jarvis made it a one-goal game after netting his 12th of the season, almost 11 minutes into the period. Will Cuylle, with under two minutes left in the period, put the game away with an empty net tally to make it a 4-2 game for the Rangers.

The Rangers are now 12-11-2 on the season and are on a two-game winning streak. They evened the season series 1-1 with the Hurricanes after both road teams won the first two meetings on the season. The Hurricanes have dropped back-to-back games, both against New York teams, and are now 14-7-2 on the season. They play their second game of the seven-game homestand against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday, Nov. 28.