In classic New Year’s fashion, New York dropped the ball in a 6-1 loss to the Hurricanes. With their largest margin of victory on the season, the Canes moved solidly back into second place in the Metropolitan division, having won four in a row for the first time this season.
Two goals from right wing Andrei Svechnikov, including the game-winning goal, powered Carolina (21-13-4) past the Rangers (25-10-1), scoring six goals in Madison Square Garden for the second time in franchise history.
Continuing where they left off in 2023, special teams have been the difference for the red-hot Canes. The power play went 2-for-4 on the night and the penalty kill was perfect, shutting the door three times on the NHL’s best power-play unit.
In the last three weeks, the Hurricanes’ power play has scored 18 goals on 43 attempts, an outstanding 41.9%. Since Dec. 23, the Canes have scored 10 power-play goals, seven of which have come from different goal-scorers.
After drawing a penalty 30 seconds into the contest, Carolina quickly capitalized on the opportunity to get ahead of one of the best teams in the league. Collecting the puck on a rebound, defenseman Brady Skjei found right wing Stefan Noesen below the goal line who then put the puck on a tee for center Jack Drury who snapped one in off the post from the right-faceoff dot.
Drury has tripled his goal count and doubled his points from last season in the same amount of games. His goal 1:49 into the first period marks the first power-play goal of his career.
It took almost the rest of the period for someone else to find the net, but rest assured, Svechnikov wasted no time on the Canes’ second power play of the night. After decisively winning the power play draw, center Sebastian Aho took his time and whipped a pass cross-ice to Svechnikov who ripped it past Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin.
No two players have been as hot as Aho and Svechnikov in the past two weeks. Over the last five games, the dynamic duo has racked up 24 points in five games. After scoring his second goal later in the third period, Svechnikov tallied his fifth consecutive multi-point performance and became the fourth player in franchise history to record multiple five-game multi-point streaks.
Following a disappointing first frame, the Rangers came out with more energy to get themselves out from behind the eight-ball. Cycling the zone, the puck eventually found defenseman Jacob Trouba at the point who wristed a shot on net and sitting in the slot was center Chris Kreider who deflected it past Canes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov.
Once again Kochetkov outplayed the opposing goaltender and put the Canes in a position to go out and win the game. Stopping 28 of 29 shots, the young goalie has been playing out of his mind, and Carolina will continue to lean on him as their No. 1.
Although Ranger fans thought they had gotten back into the game, they were soon left with their head in their hands. Two minutes later, center Jordan Staal capitalized on a miscommunication in front of the New York goal and found left wing Jordan Martinook in the slot who roofed the puck for his second goal of the year.
Despite the fast response, the Rangers kept putting the pressure on throughout the middle frame as they doubled up the Canes shots-on-goal by the end of it 10 to five. A holding penalty to center Martin Necas at the end of the second looked like it could give the spark the Rangers needed to stay in the game going into the final period.
However, defenseman Jalen Chatfield had other ideas. Ten seconds after killing the penalty, Necas, fresh out of the box, skated into the zone where he found Drury who found Chatfield who slapped the puck over Shesterkin’s right shoulder to make it 4-1 with 18:27 remaining. With the assist, Drury now has 10 points in his last 13 games and has given the Canes reliable depth scoring game-in and game-out.
If Chatfield’s early goal wasn’t enough for the ecstatic Caniacs, less than a minute and a half later, Svechnikov powered his way past Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren to get to the front of the net, making it 5-1. In his last seven games, he has seven goals, and in his last 15 games, he has 19 points. With the two-goal performance, Svechnikov joins Aho as the only two Canes players averaging a point per game.
Although the game was already decided by the time the sixth goal came around, left wing Michael Bunting didn’t care. In a two-on-one with left wing Brendan Lemieux, who drew into the lineup for an injured right wing Jesper Fast, got to the front of the net and collected a pass going to the backhand to make it 6-1. Lemieux’s assist came on a beautiful backhand saucer pass to the slot, marking his first assist on the season.
Carolina has one more road game before coming back home to PNC in Washington on Friday, Jan. 5 where it’ll take on the Capitals at 7 p.m.
