Hurricanes power past Rangers for 3-2 lead
The Carolina Hurricanes controlled long stretches of play, stayed aggressive and even got a breakthrough in a twomonth struggle on the power play.
It was enough to secure another home playoff victory. Now they can turn their attention to trying to put away the New York Rangers, too.
Vincent Trocheck buried a short-handed goal, Teuvo Teravainen had a rare power-play score and the Hurricanes beat the Rangers 3-1 on Thursday night to take a 3-2 lead in the second-round series.
It was part of yet another strong home performance for the Metropolitan Division champions, who improved to 7-0 at home in the postseason.
“It was kind of the game that I’ve been waiting for,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve been playing OK, but tonight was good all the way around — more obviously how we want to play.”
Andrei Svechnikov also scored, beating Igor Shesterkin with a backhander on a breakaway midway through the third period as the Hurricanes protected their Game 5 lead.
The Hurricanes can advance to the Eastern Conference finals to face reigning two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay by winning Game 6 in New York on Saturday, though they are 0-5 away from PNC Arena so far despite tying for the NHL lead in regular-season road wins.
Now Carolina faces the
challenge of putting away a team that has been resilient, even stubborn, when facing a series deficit.
The Rangers rallied from a 3-1 hole to beat Pittsburgh in a sevengame first-round series, then lost the first two games against Carolina before fighting back to even at home.
“The way I look at it, we’ve played a lot of mustwin games lately, and we’ve done a pretty good job,” said New York’s Ryan Strome, who had a secondperiod goal negated by a successful offsides challenge from Carolina.
“We’ve played some desperate hockey . ... We seem to like being in this position
a little bit.”
The Hurricanes sustained their aggressive style while giving the Rangers little room to operate, finishing with a 3417 shot advantage to keep the pressure on Shesterkin while also easing the burden on Antti Raanta (16 saves) in Carolina’s net.
Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal for New York, winning a first-period faceoff and then drifting to the left side for the putaway just six seconds into the man advantage. Shesterkin — a finalist for both the Vezina Trophy for the league’s top goalie and Hart Trophy for most valuable player — finished with 31 saves against a steady stream of work.
OILERS 5, FLAMES 4 » Connor McDavid scored at 5:03 of overtime and Edmonton won at Calgary to win the second-round playoff series in five games and advance to the Western Conference finals.
The Edmonton captain scored his seventh goal of the postseason, beating Jacob Markstrom off a pass from Leon Draisaitl to send the Oilers spilling over the bench in celebration.
Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists and Darnell Nurse, Jesse Puljujarvi and Evan Bouchard also scored for the Oilers. Mike Smith made 32 saves as Edmonton claimed the first postseason Battle of Alberta in 31 years.
Draisaitl added four assists — his fifth straight contest registering threeplus points to build on the NHL playoff record he set in Game 4.