The Rangers lost a second consecutive game to the Carolina Hurricanes in their second round playoff series, blowing an early lead and falling, 4-1, in Game 5 Monday night at MSG.
The Rangers still lead the best-of-seven series, 3-2, with the series switching to Raleigh, N.C., for Game 6 Thursday. But the whole affair has a different feel with the ‘Canes getting two straight wins as they try to survive.
The Rangers had won all four of their previous home games in these playoffs before Monday.
Takeaways
– The Hurricanes are trying to accomplish something done by only four NHL teams — come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games. The team that took the 3-0 lead has won the series 205 times or 98.1 percent of the time, according to NHL.com.
– Carolina trailed entering the third period, but scored three goals in just over six minutes to take the lead and change the series. With 16:27 left, Jordan Staal skated around Braden Schneider and beat Igor Shesterkin with a backhand shot to tie the score and 3:06 later, Evgeny Kuznetsov stuffed in the puck after Shesterkin had given up a juicy rebound off a Brady Skjei shot. Then with 10:04 left, Jordan Martinook scored after a pass by Martin Necas from behind the net following a Ranger giveaway. Necas scored an empty-net goal with 3:31 once the Rangers had pulled Shesterkin for an extra attacker.
– Jacob Trouba scored a short-handed goal with 13:37 remaining in the second period to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. He was part of a two-on-one after a turnover by Carolina’s power play crew. Trouba kept the puck and fired it past Andersen on the stick side for his first goal of the playoffs. It was the Rangers’ second short-handed goal of the series and their fourth of these playoffs so far.
– The New York penalty-kill continued to do good work, stopping three Carolina power plays. The Rangers are 19 for 20 (95%) on the PK in this series and 34 of 37 (91.9%) overall in the playoffs.
– Neither team scored in the first period, though there were a few good chances. Carolina made Shesterkin work more and he had to stop Ranger-killer Jake Guentzel on a breakaway try with about three minutes remaining in the period. The Rangers’ best chance was probably a Chris Kreider tip try that Andersen turned away.
– Matt Rempe returned to action after being scratched in each of the past two games. Ranger fans seemed happy — they chanted “Rem-pe, Rem-pe” during one of his early shifts in the first period. Filip Chytil did not play and neither did Jonny Brodzinski.
Who’s the MVP?
Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen, who made 20 saves. He started for the second straight game after being replaced for Game 3 and has now started four of the five games in the series. Figure he gets a fifth in Game 6.
Highlights
What’s next
The Hurricanes host the Rangers for Game 6 Thursday at 7 p.m. If necessary, Game 7 is tentatively scheduled for Saturday.
