Rangers Even Series with Canes

Following the animosity after Game 3 on Sunday, Game 4 between the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers started of quickly. The Canes come into this game winless on the road and the Blueshirts were looking to tie this best-of-7 series at 2 a piece.

About halfway through the first period, Jacob Trouba stepped up in the neutral zone and laid a monster hit on Max Domi.

Immediately, Steven Lorentz grabbed Trouba and started swinging. Following this altercation, Lorentz was handed 2 minutes for instigating, 5 minutes for fighting, and a 10 minute misconduct. Trouba received 5 minutes for fighting and no penalty on the hit to Domi.

Where there does appear to be head contact on the hit, Domi seems to have slipped just prior to contact, lowering the inital point of contact. Trouba was already committed to the hit, and he is 5 inches taller than Domi. It's unclear at this point, but Trouba may be receiving a call from the NHL's Department of Player Safety. After all, they review all plays of this nature, especially when head contact is involved.

On the ensuing powerplay, Rangers' forward Frank Vatrano scored on the powerplay to put his team up 1-0 at home.

Just two minutes later, defenseman Adam Fox tipped in a shot from his D partner, Ryan Lindgren for the Rangers' second tally of the game.

Late in the period, Tony DeAngelo and Ryan Reaves got into an animated discussion after the whistle. I don't think they were making dinner plans:

At least one Canes' player showed up on time today. Antti Raanta with a beautiful save on a pretty sick play between Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad:

Igor Shesterkin answered with a brillant save of his own:

Despite an improved period for the Canes, the Rangers added another goal to their total. Zibanejad dropped a pass to Lindgren, and then tapped home the rebound for a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.

Teuvo Teravainen notched the only Carolina goal of the game on a beautiful pass from Sebastian Aho.

Andrew Copp gave the Rangers a more comfortable lead later in the period after Seth Jarvis turnover in neutral zone.

The Rangers flat outplayed the Hurricanes tonight. Four Rangers finished with 2+ points: Copp, Fox, Lindgren, and Vatrano. Shesterkin allowed only 1 goal on 31 shots for a .968 save percentage. The Rangers tied the series 2-2 heading into Raleigh for Game 5 on Thursday.

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