New York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes: Henrik Lundqvist stands tall in 3-2 win

The New York Rangers won their third straight game, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 behind an outstanding effort by Henrik Lundqvist.

The New York Rangers jumped out to a 3-0 lead as they played probably their  best period of the season.  Midway through the second period, an ill-advised penalty resulted in a goal for Carolina and it became a nailbiter.  Henrik Lundqvist made 41 saves and was the single reason the Blueshirts won.

There was a lot to like about the Rangers’ effort.  They took it to one of the better teams in the NHL and were dominant.  Then came the bugaboo that haunted them last season, the too many men on the ice penalty.  The Hurricanes scored two quick goals and it was Lundqvist and a prayer for the rest of the game.

They’ve now won three in a row for the first time this season and have a record of 12-9-2.  The last time they were three games over .500 was 366 days ago when they beat Ottawa on November 26, 2018 .  The Blueshirts are five points out of the wildcard with two games in hand.  They have won four out of six games against Metropolitan Division teams.

The game

The first period belong completely to the Rangers.  Although the shot advantage was only 11-10, the Blueshirts completely dominated.  They got off to a fabulous start when the Hurricanes took two penalties in the first three minutes and they cashed in on the second.  Of course, it was Mika Zibanejad who scored on an outstanding pass from Adam Fox who held the puck until he had a clear lane to Zibanejad who slammed the puck home.

Artemi Panarin also assisted on the goal to extend his new point scoring streak to three games.  He has had a point in 14 of his last 15 games.

One minute, eighteen seconds later, the Rangers scored again with the goal coming from an unlikely source.  Brendan Smith ended up on the blue line after a cycle and fired a slapshot past Petr Mrazek.

It was Smith’s first goal since the first game of the season and it the kind of shot a defenseman is used to taking, though he was playing wing.

Lundqvist was clearly on his game as he made some excellent saves late on Carolina.

With only a minute forty  left in the first period, Artemi Panarin finally got a one timer he could shoot quickly and Adam Fox made a sublime deflection in to the net for a three goal lead.

The Blueshirts retired to the locker room with a 3-0 lead and the game well in hand.

The second period was well played by both teams and they exchanged power plays.  The Blueshirts had some excellent scoring opportunities for Strome and Chytil, but they couldn’t get the puck past Mrazek.   Then the roof fell in.

Brendan Lemieux jumped on the ice without thinking and the Rangers took their third too many men penalty in four games.  It took Ryan Dzingel 1:02 into the power play to score on a deflection of a wrister from the blue line.

Ninety second later, the Hurricanes scored their second goal and the Rangers were on their heels.  Warren Foegele knocked in the rebound of his own shot while on his belly after he took it to the net.  Lundqvist made the original save, but the puck just made it into the net when Foegele batted it in.

The last four minutes of the period were an adventure and Henrik Lundqvist saved the game with an absolutely fantastic stick save on a Martin Necas shot destined for a wide open net.

The Rangers escaped with no further damage despite a penalty to Ryan Strome.  They were outshot in the period 16-9.

The Rangers returned for the third period with their composure restored.  It was the classic case of bending, but not breaking as the Hurricanes outshot the Rangers 17-5 and Lundqvist was simply fantastic.  First they had to kill the last 30 seconds of the Strome penalty and then they relied on Lundqvist to bail them out.

The blueliners played well in front of Lundqvist,  highlighted by a great pokecheck by Fox on a Hurricanes break-in.

With 3:10 left in the game, it looked grim when Filip Chytil took a tripping penalty, but Lundqvist was a rock in goal and Ryan Lindgren was an absolute monster on the blue line.  Carolina pulled their goalie while they had the man advantage, but the Blueshirts hung on and closed out the win.

The shots ended up a lopsided 34-25 in favor or Carolina as the Rangers could muster only 14 shots in the last two periods to the Hurricanes’ 33.

It was a hard fought win that was unlike the previous two.  Those were comeback wins that displayed resilience.  This game showed character.

Notes on the game

Henrik Lundqvist owns the Carolina Hurricanes.  He has allowed two or fewer goals in his last nine starts and the last time he allowed three goals in a game to them was on October 28, 2016. His career record  against Carolina is now 32-12-1.

In his return to action, Mika Zibanejad played 17:25.   With his return, David Quinn was able to roll four lines and Ryan Strome led all forwards in ice time with 18:13. After the game Quinn said  “He just give us so much more depth.  Our whole lineup looks different when we have him in  it… It’s amazing what one center can do to your whole lineup. It looks a lot longer and a lot deeper.”

The Rangers abysmal performance on draws continued.  Carolina won 60% of 70 faceoffs.

With their third too many men penalty in four games, Brendan Lemieux spent some quality time in the Quinn Bin  in the second period.  Quinn addressed the too many men issue after the game, saying “The too many men on the ice penalty changed the momentum of the game. Give them a lot of credit, they threw everything they had at us and I think we just found a way to survive.  But I think we got a little demoralized by that penalty, that’s on me. I’m the head coach here, that can’t happen and I can guarantee that it won’t happen anymore.”

Check out this tweet:

It’s all well and good, but that goal was scored by Brendan Smith who was playing as a winger. Technically, the NHL lists Smith as a defenseman, but it should matter what position he is playing in the game for records purposes.

When Adam Fox scored, it was the 21st goal scored by a defenseman, most in the NHL, breaking a tie with the Hurricanes.  Of  course, the NHL counts Brendan Smith as a defenseman though he scored one of the goals as a forward.

Ryan Dzingel scored the first Carolina goal.  He had scored only one goal in his previous 14 games and it was his first power play goal of the season.

Warren Foegele scored Carolina’s second goal and had an astounding nine shots on goal, with seven in the first period.