The Rangers took a 3-0 lead in the second round, mainly on special teams, proving to be completely superior to the Carolina team.
But that wasn’t enough to clinch the series-clinching victory.
And it wasn’t on Monday, when some great hockey continued on the penalty kill and the Rangers lost 4-1 anyway, sending the series back to Raleigh for a suddenly very tense Game 6.
The Hurricanes still hadn’t figured out how to score on the power play, failing to score on all three requests, and Brady Skjei’s game-winner in Game 4 only sparked a short goal by Jacob Trouba.
And it was the squat after Carolina scored back-to-back 5-on-5 goals in the third courtesy of Jordan Staal, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jordan Martinuk that mattered.
“I thought they were smart late in the game just to get the puck out of their zone,” Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought we didn’t connect much on the forecheck. With quick D-to-D passes, they got a chance to get the puck out. Definitely not our best game.”
Sure, there were bad times for bad games. But this was in line with the series, in which Carolina defeated the Rangers on even strength, 11-9.
The first three games were canceled, and the rest were canceled thanks to special teams.
It doesn’t help that on Monday, the power play, which had been firing on all cylinders early in the series, suddenly faltered a bit, going scoreless for the third straight game and not moving the puck as quickly as the Rangers would like. There wasn’t. .
However, the game was an even loss, and the Rangers never got a foothold in the game, and regardless of the score, it was unclear whether they had a foothold in the series.
“We weren’t sharp,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “It wasn’t just a third period.”
If there’s any reason to believe the Hurricanes can do something historic and surprise the Rangers by winning their next two games and making a full comeback, it’s because they’re currently playing a superficial game. It means he can feel with some legitimacy that the problem has been resolved by leaving the Rangers.
Laviolette, who reiterated that this loss was not just the fault of a lackluster third period, sounded like a man who, while his beliefs have not changed at all, is fully aware of the potential.
“Whenever they don’t perform to your ability, you worry about it, yes,” he said. “What I know about this group is they’ve had games like that before and they responded. It takes an explanation from them, from themselves and from us. It comes with responsibility. We need to do better, so we’ll do that.”
The Rangers might be able to survive a moderate 5-on-5 game, and they might be able to survive a moderate power play. There’s no way either of them can survive, and that’s the nature of these two matches.
And now all the pressure is on them.
