Summary
Quebecer Alexis Lafrenière surprised Frederik Andersen with a wrist shot after recovering the puck in the faceoff circle to the right of the Hurricanes net to make it 1-0 at 10:53.
Moments later, Andrei Svechnikov was penalized for skipping Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, who was recovering the puck behind his net. Svechnikov brought the goalkeeper down spectacularly with his left leg. The numerical advantage did not allow the Rangers to add to their lead.
Jake Guentzel tied the score when he deflected a shot from the blue line off the stick of Sebastian Aho at 15:07 to make it 1-1.
Then with 5.4 seconds remaining in the first period, Dmitry Orlov put the Canes ahead for the first time in the series when he skillfully deflected the puck into the Rangers’ cage.
Lafrenière tied the game with his second of the game when he redirected a pass into the enemy net to make it 2-2 in the second period.
Forgotten in front of the net, Guentzel had no trouble giving the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead thanks to his second of the game at 18:16 of the middle period.
In the third, Chris Kreider evened the odds on a power play to make it 3-3. He scored by grabbing a throw return.
Pre-match notes:
The Carolina Hurricanes are trying to bounce back in their series against the New York Rangers in the second game of this series on Tuesday.
The Rangers lead the series 1-0 thanks to a 4-3 victory. Carolina won’t want to leave Madison Square Garden two games behind.
New York has won five straight in the current playoffs, allowing 2.00 goals per game, with a 44.4 percent power play success rate.
The Rangers are also 24-14 when winning the first game of a best-of-7 series and 12-4 when winning the first two games of a matchup.
For their part, the Hurricanes are 6-10 when they lose the first game of a series and 2-8 when they lose the first two games. They have lost in five games or less each of the last three times they lost the first two games of a series.
Mika Zibanejad was the spark plug on offense for the Rangers with two goals and an assist in the first period alone. Zibanejad has ten points (three goals, seven assists) in five playoff games, with at least two points in each of the last four meetings.
Carolina’s massive offense will have to do better to hope for a better result, as the Hurricanes were shut out on five power plays and gave up two goals on as many chances with one less player.
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin didn’t necessarily have his best game, but he made 22 saves. He became the third goalie in Rangers history to start the playoffs with five straight victories, after Dave Kerr (1937) and Mike Richter (1994).
For his part, Frederik Andersen gave up four times on 23 shots.
Jaccob Slavin, Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis responded offensively for the Hurricanes.
