On the road for the first time against the New York Rangers in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes once again continued their struggles away from PNC Arena and with the power play in a 3-1 loss.
New York took advantage of a power play opportunity around halfway through the first period to go up 1-0 and doubled the score to 2-0 just six minutes into the second, a lead too high for the Canes to recover from.
Scoring on the power play has been the Hurricanes’ Achilles heel throughout this postseason, and that was proven again as the Canes failed to take advantage of three different opportunities, including a chance to tie the game at two with less than seven minutes remaining of action.
“We have to find a way to get a goal on the power play and I think that’s something which we’ve got to address,” said Hurricanes right wing Nino Niederreiter. “We’ve got to find a way to sharpen up and make them pay when we have to.”
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin was no help either, saving 43 of 44 shots faced for a .977 save percentage.
“I would take that game most nights to be quite honest with you,” said Canes head coach Rod
Brind’Amour. “I haven’t looked yet, I’m assuming we had pretty good opportunities… it’s just we didn’t capitalize on the power play. We need to and they did.”
Carolina had a strong start with 12 shots on goal and a man advantage opportunity in the first ten minutes of play, but at 10:40 into the first period, defenseman Brady Skjei was called for a holding penalty, which ultimately led to the first goal of the game.
Just over one minute into the power play, New York’s Mika Zibanejad buried the puck in the net to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
The Rangers jumped further ahead around six minutes into the second period on a Chris Kreider goal, a perfect shot that went just past Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta to bring the score to 2-0.
Not even three minutes later, Niederreiter scored the Canes’ only goal of the game, squeezing one past Shesterkin to cut the lead in half.
With just 27 seconds left in the second period, Carolina had another opportunity on the one-man advantage with a high sticking call to Alexis Lafrenière, but like before, the team was unable to produce a goal.
The Hurricanes had one final chance to score on the power play with 13:57 left in the third period, an excellent opportunity to tie the game up, but it was Tyler Motte of the Rangers who scored an empty netter late to seal the deal for New York.
The loss for Carolina cuts the series lead to 2-1. Game four is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, May 24.
