Canes Take Game 2 in Shutout Fashion

It just seems the Carolina Hurricanes are having a hard time getting going at the beginning of games in the second round against the New York Rangers. Despite shots being 8-5 Carolina after the first period, New York controlled the pace of play for most of the first period. The Canes had a late push with their top line, but other than that most of the Canes chances came via short-handed attempts.

The Hurricanes were the 6th most penalized team in the regular season, amassing 331 penalties in total. This lack of discipline has allowed their opponents several early powerplay chances. The Rangers were unable to capitalize on those chances in the first period, but the Blueshirts have posted a nearly 30% clip on the PP this postseason.

Ryan Strome's bad luck continues. On a delayed penalty, he received a pass from Andrew Copp to dunk a seemingly open net. Unfortunately, Strome shot into Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo. Well... perhaps Antti Raanta could have saved it anyway?!

To add injury to insult, Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren added to his injury woes. In an unfortunate play in the neutral zone, a puck ramped up his stick and caught him in the face. He went back to the room for a brief time, bleeding. Like so many hockey players this postseason, he returned just minutes later.

The first period ended tied 0-0, marking the first time the Rangers have a scoreless first period this postseason.

The second period was status quo until Rangers' youngster Alexis Lafreniere drew a 4 minute high-sticking penalty on former Ranger and current Hurricane Brady Skjei. Advantage New York... right? Wrong. Canes' Sebastian Aho fed a beautiful pass on a shorthanded 2 on 1 play over to another former Ranger Brendan Smith for the first goal of the contest.

Trailing 1-0 in the game and in the series, the Rangers needed to ramp up their game in the third period. Unfortunately, their high-flying forwards did not get the memo. Despite an outstanding game from Igor Shesterkin (20 saves on 21 shots, .952 save percentage), he received absolutely zero goal support from his teammates.

Aho added an empty net tally to seal the deal for his team. Raanta recorded the shutout (21 saves).

Game 3 is Sunday at 3:30pm in NYC.

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