NHL: The Rangers sink again against the Hurricanes

The New York Rangers had hopes of getting their heads above water after a victory against the Dallas Stars on Friday, but the Carolina Hurricanes took care to bring them back to earth on Sunday.

Carolina took advantage of a three-goal spurt without reply to get the better of the Rangers by a score of 3-1.

While the Rangers suffered a sixth loss in their last eight games, the Hurricanes won a third of their last four outings.

Goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov not only stopped 22 shots to get the victory, but he also collected two points in the victory. Kochetkov had assists on goals from Jack Roslovic and Sebastian Aho. The Hurricanes' other goal was the work of Quebecer William Carrier.

Kochetkov became the second goalie in Hurricanes/Whalers franchise history to collect two points in a game. Kay Whitmore was the other to achieve the feat, with Hartford in 1989.

However, the match started badly for New York, who allowed a goal after only 17 seconds of play in the first period. Jimmy Vesey opened the scoring when he redirected a nice pass from Chad Wuhwedel.

Carolina took control of the game in the middle period. Placed at the mouth of the net, Carrier jumped on a return shot to bring everyone back to square one.

Then a little later, Kochetkov restarted the attack with a pass to Dmitry Orlov. The latter then returned the puck to Roslovic with a cross-ice pass, then Roslovic gave the Hurricanes the lead.

At the end of the game, Kochetkov cleared the puck through the boards and Andrei Svechnikov recovered the puck. He allowed Aho to end the Rangers' chances with an empty-net goal.