Artemi Panarin spoiled the party in Carolina, scoring in overtime to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 victory, who took a 3-0 lead in their first-round series against the Hurricanes.
The locals however dominated the match 47-25 in terms of shots, but came up against an Igor Shesterkin (45 saves) in great form.
And in the overtime period, the goalie saw his star teammate take charge by redirecting Vincent Trocheck’s pass into the opposing net at 1:43. It was a fourth goal for Panarin in the current series.
Alexis Lafrenière and Chris Kreider were the other scorers for the Rangers. Trocheck had two assists.
Andrei Svechnikov (one goal, one assist) and Jake Guentzel responded for the Hurricanes. In his first start of the spring tournament, Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 22 of the 25 shots aimed at him. His last match was on April 14, during the regular season.
The Rangers will have the opportunity to punch their ticket to the next round on Saturday at the PNC Arena in Raleigh. They still haven’t lost in seven games since the start of the playoffs.
The Hurricanes opened the scoring midway through the first period when Guentzel, posted in the slot, redirected Dmitry Orlov’s shot.
Kreider then responded during a numerical penalty, at 8:30 of the second period. He took advantage of a discount from Mika Zibanejad to hit the mark. Zibanejad took the puck from Brent Burns in his territory to cause a surplus.
Alexis Lafrenière gave the New Yorkers the lead by firing a quick wrist shot, on one reception, at 6:24 of the third period.
But Svechnikov brought everyone back to square one with 1:36 left in regulation. The Hurricanes winger grabbed a return shot in the slot to make it 2-2 and force overtime.
Rangers forward Filip Chytil, who hadn’t played since Nov. 2 due to a lower-body injury, was back in action.
