Game 2 of the second round was the first true adversity the Rangers have faced since the playoffs began.
Still, despite trailing by two points in the game, the Blueshirts put their heads down and went for the game-clinching power-play goal in the final frame before Vincent Trocheck scored in the second overtime. He scored on the man advantage and secured four points.They head to Raleigh, North Carolina with a -3 win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden and lead the series 2-0.
The Rangers seemed to have a lot less punch in their games than they have recently.
Still, they never trailed by more than one point and managed to tie the game at 3-ALL on Chris Kreider’s power play goal just over six minutes into the third period.
But they then squandered their last two man-advantage opportunities in the final 10:6 of regulation.
Goaltender Igor Shesterkin kept his team afloat when needed, making 17 saves in the third period alone to reach 54 saves on the night.
Alexis Lafreniere led the Rangers with his first two goals of the playoffs, ending a 28-game winless streak in the postseason after the regular-season break, and Jake Guentzel, acquired at the Hurricanes’ trade deadline, had two goals.
It felt like the Hurricanes were under siege from the end of the first game through most of the second, but Shesterkin hung on until Lafreniere tied it at 7:32 of the middle period.
Adam Fox patiently grabbed the puck and then dished to a crashing Lafniere, who buried his second of the game and took credit for the sequence by pointing directly at the Rangers defenseman.
But a careless neutral-zone run by Jacob Trouba allowed the Canes to surge into the offensive zone before Sebastian Aho hit Guentzel up the middle for a 3-2 lead.
The Rangers captain also contributed three penalties in the victory, including one in the first overtime.
The discord between these teams continues to grow, and Tuesday night was full of examples of the budding feud.
After Lafreniere took the lead with his first playoff goal on a sharp shot from the left circle, Carolina forward Andrei Svechnikov tried to avoid contact with Shesterkin behind the home team’s net, causing the goaltender to — a bit of a drama. In fact, it flopped. ice.
MSG stood up armed like the Rangers. Shesterkin also skated off the net and toward Svechnikov, but Svechnikov was only given a minor tripping penalty after the play was reviewed by officials.
Guentzel then redirected an idiot shot to tie the score at one-all.
In response to Shesterkin’s sequence, Matt Lempe intentionally slid very close to Hurricanes goaltender Freddie Andersen without touching him, and was immediately pushed to the ice by Jack Drury.
The 6-foot-8-1/2-inch forward stood up to defend himself but was quickly removed by officials.
During a 4-on-4 play after the first period, Dmitri Orlov hit a long shot off the stick, giving Carolina its first lead of the series going into the first intermission.
