RALEIGH, N.C. — Thursday night’s hero was one of the goats for the Rangers Saturday night.
Two nights ago, inside a hopeless PNC Arena, it was Artemi Panarin who thrust a dagger into the heart of the Hurricanes. He scored the winning goal in overtime, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead in the series.
That’s when Panarin stood in front of his teammates in the cramped visitor’s locker room at PNC Arena in the final minutes of regulation and implored them not to get discouraged by the fact that Carolina had tied the score at 6-5. That was a few minutes later. Staying “resilient” in OT.
The Rangers lost to Carolina 4-3 in Game 4 on Saturday night at PNC Arena. In this game, they rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the score at 3-3 in the third period, but it quickly turned into a very close game. It’s a different story for them, especially Panarin.
With the Hurricanes already leading 1-0 on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s unassisted goal just 1:51 into the game, Panarin delivered the first punch to the Rangers’ jaw, hitting former Rangers defenseman Tony De Angelo was slightly delayed in reaching the approaching puck. blue line.
That led to a goal by Stefan Nosen, and Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba was unable to flick Carolina’s Jordan Staal out of the goal crease, giving the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead at 6:33 of the first period. .
Carolina center Martin Necas snatched the free puck and fired a shot at Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, whose rebound was buried by Norson.
After the Rangers cut the lead against Carolina to 2-1 just 1 minute and 33 seconds after Nosen’s goal, Panarin appeared to take the ice for his substitution just a split second late, then found the back of the Rangers’ net for the Hurricanes. center Jake Guentzel took a shot from a bad angle. .
Moments later, Guentzel gave the puck to Sebastian Aho, Panarin was shielded by Aho in front of the net, and Aho beat Shesterkin over his left shoulder to give Carolina a commanding 3-1 lead.
It was the first time this postseason that the Rangers trailed by more than one point.
Rangers manager Peter Laviolette said in a TNT television interview that “we didn’t play well enough defensively” during the first and second periods. He said: “If he makes a mistake early on, [the puck] I’m on the other side of the internet. If you don’t play defense, you’ll end up in the back of the net. ”
To be clear, Panarin was not the only reason the Rangers lost Game 4, and they must end this series at the Garden on Monday night to avoid a second trip to North Carolina.
But two nights after being the difference-maker in the Rangers’ Game 3 victory, he helped set the Rangers up for early adversity, even if it was a subtle mistake on his part.
“We dug ourselves a hole early,” Laviolette said after the game. ” [chances] It was quite noisy that we gave up. It has to come out a little sharper than that. There were some things in the first period where I thought we could have improved a little bit defensively. ”
Asked specifically about Panarin’s mistake, Laviolette, who never publicly criticizes players, avoided making any accusations.
“Listen, they have a good team and some strong players,” the protective coach said. “[Panarin] I managed to get caught on the wrong side. [Guentzel on the Aho goal] And you lose him for a moment, and… it’s not just [Panarin]. We could have been a little more rigorous with what we were doing, making puck decisions and ending coverage a little earlier. ”
The last thing the Rangers wanted in Game 4 was to give the Hurricanes any hope early in the game.
“We wanted to rely on relentless pressure, and if we didn’t do that in the first period, we weren’t going to play anymore,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour told TNT during the second period break. Ta.
Panarin’s shaky start was not shared with reporters after the game, but it was somewhat ironic in the words of Carolina center Martin Necas when asked about the Rangers’ leading scorer before the game.
“He’s one of those players, like he was in the last game.” [Thursday], you could hardly notice him the whole game and just two plays from him and it’s game over,” Necas said. “With these players, you really have to know where they are or things like that happen.”
On this night, it was the Hurricanes who beat Panarin, not the other way around.
