RALEIGH, N.C. — Pure anger permeated the visiting locker room at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, moments before Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal for the Rangers in double overtime. He made the decision and brought back his former team, the Hurricanes. 2-0 series hole to Lowry.
One by one, Carolina players held their breath as they loaded giant hockey bags into carts for loading onto the team bus.
The weight of the unbearable defeat was clearly the heaviest they had ever carried.
Game 2 saw the Hurricanes’ typical performance, but it still wasn’t enough to get them ahead of the Blueshirts. The Blueshirts remain undefeated this postseason after winning six straight games.
But memory should help the Rangers.
When the two clubs met in the playoffs two years ago, the home team won the first six games, and in that postseason, the Rangers won a dominant Game 7, defeating the Canes on home ice for the first time.
“You can always say that, but at the end of the day, we know what we have to do to win,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the 2022 series record. “We’re going to have to find a way to do it. You’re free to draw whatever you want, but at the end of the day, they know. They believe in that. They know that. , they’re the ones playing the game, but I think they understand what we have to do and I feel like we can do it.”
Forget your despair, the hurricane is raging.
Tuesday was a game that really could have gone either way, and the Canes didn’t take full advantage of the opportunities they were given.
Carolina captain Jordan Staal almost blamed the Rangers for diving, but Martin Necas was asked about the elbow that narrowly missed the Hurricanes forward when the Rangers captain took a surging hit, and Martin Necas said Jacob・I answered that everyone knows what kind of player Trouba is.
As hard as the Hurricanes tried to win Tuesday, there’s something to be said for the way the Rangers never let the game slip away.
Of course, the game was made a little easier thanks to goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin’s 54 saves, but despite the visiting team’s underwhelming stretches, they always remained within attacking distance.
Game 2 of Game 2 was the first game this postseason in which the Rangers allowed two consecutive runs. It was also the first time since the playoffs began that they were at a disadvantage for a certain period of time.
Still, the Rangers rode what head coach Peter Laviolette described as a roller-coaster game by the time it came time to end the game.
So the Hurricanes took down two banners they had brought with them to make the halls of the MSG visitor’s locker room feel more like home.
One of them said to “cause chaos” and I did, but it didn’t help.
Now they return to their real home, angry and upset.
A storm forms and the Rangers fly into it.
“I think we believe in each other,” Barclay Goodrow said. “I think we have a lot of confidence in our teammates and the system we play. The group has been together for a while. I don’t know where that belief comes from, but we’ve been building it and It started here from day one and it just kept going. I think that comes from a lot of trust in my teammates.”
