Whatever curse may have been placed over the Carolina Hurricanes prior to the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs made an appearance again as the team dropped a 4-1 game on the road to the New York Rangers to tie the series at two.
Despite a couple of amazing saves by goaltender Antti Raanta, the Canes again struggled in New York and with their power play, unable to overcome Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s 30-save performance.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this matchup is the continued absence of the Hurricanes’ leading scorers from the regular season on the road, including center Sebastian Aho, right wing Andrei Svechnikov and left wing Teuvo Teravainen.
Aho, who led the team in goals throughout the regular season, has just one assist on the road this postseason, which came early in the third on a Teravainen goal. Speaking of Teravainen, his goal tonight was also his lone point on the road in this year’s playoffs.
Svechnikov has also been noticeably quiet since his two-goal game at Boston back on May 12. Together, Aho, Teravainen and Svechnikov had seven shots on goal in game four, but only one puck in the back of the net resulted from them.
“I mean, we didn’t score,” said Aho. “We’ve gotta score on the power play. Especially on the third period power play we had some looks, and I had one I created. We just gotta be a little bit sharper there and bring it in.”
Raanta was tested early as center Seth Jarvis was called for a tripping penalty just 4:25 into the first period.
While the Canes did kill that penalty, it was the start of a disastrous first period at Madison Square Garden which ended with a score of 2-0 Rangers.
Just past the halfway mark of the first period, the Hurricanes were called for another group of penalties, all on center Steven Lorentz, who faced a two-minute instigator penalty, five-minute fighting penalty and a ten-minute misconduct penalty after defending center Max Domi, who took a hard hit to the head from New York’s Jacob Trouba.
Frank Vatrano slipped one past the Hurricanes’ defense just two minutes later, and Adam Fox doubled that lead with less than five minutes left in the period as Carolina dug itself into a hole early.
“It was a tough first period for us for sure,” said Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Obviously we gave up a power play goal on the second one. The first one they were zipping it around, they had it in our zone the whole time… You give them two, it’s tough to come back”
Carolina’s first test on the power play came around halfway through the second period on an interference penalty against the Rangers, but it was the home team who seemed to have the best chance to score in those two minutes.
Mika Zibanejad, who was almost responsible for a shorthanded goal, found the back of the net just a few minutes later, putting the Rangers up 3-0 with less than five minutes left in the second period.
Despite another power play opportunity just over three minutes into the third, it wouldn’t be until the 6:33 mark that Teravainen finally put the Canes on the board, but it was too little too late for Carolina.
An Andrew Copp snapshot gave the Rangers their three-goal lead back, which concluded the scoring in another disappointing night for the Hurricanes on the road.
The series will return to PNC Arena for game five. Puck drop is scheduled for May 26 at 7 p.m.
“We have a fifth game ahead of us at home,” said Aho. “That’s all we think about. We want to win that hockey game and move on.”
