Rangers knot series at 2 games apiece with 4-1 win

This was as close to a laugher as we have had in this series as the New York Rangers never trailed in a 4-1 win at Madison Square Garden.  They have come back from a 0-2 deficit to tie the Carolina Hurricanes in their second round playoff series.  That means they will play at least one more game this season at the Garden.

The teams followed the script with all the games won by the home team in this series.  In fact, the Hurricanes are yet to win on the road this postseason, winning all six home games and losing all five road games.  Of course, for the Rangers to win this series, they have to break that streak.

The expected confrontation between Ryan Reaves and Max Domi didn’t happen until the last 10 seconds of the game, and at that it was relatively uneventful.

But it was Max Domi who was involved in a key play in the game. At 11:38, Jacob Trouba laid a big hit on Domi that turned the tide for the Blueshirts and gave them the  impetus for the win.   After Jacob Trouba laid out Domi with a big hit, he was attacked by Steven Lorentz who ended up with the instigator penalty and a misconduct.  The Rangers scored on the subsequent power play and never trailed.

Coach Gerard Gallant talked about how important it was. “That was a big hit by Troubs.  He steps up at the blue line and obviously it was a big part of the game. Good, clean hard hit, they stepped up and got an instigator penalty and we scored, capitalized on it.  It was big for us.”

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour actually didn’t complain about the instigator penalty saying “I know our guy comes in after the hit. I think they’re trying to do a job on that. If it’s a good hit, you shouldn’t come in.  He got cross checked pretty good in the face when he comes in.  It’s over.”

Adam Fox talked about it as well. “Trouba’s kind of done that all year. I don’t know if we needed a jolt to get going, but he got everyone going, defended himself and got us a power play and we scored there. It’s a big turning point in the game for sure.”

 Close to a 60 minute effort

Coach Gallant agreed that this was as good as effort as they have had all season.  He did say that the team sat back after getting ahead 3-0 and focused on protecting the lead, something he does not want to see.   With the Rangers on their heels a bit and back to the dump and defend play that hurt them in Game One, Gallant called Andrew Copp’s goal to restore the three goal lead “huge.”

All through the series he has emphasized that either team could have won any of the games including this one.   The very fact that the games were so close was one reason why the Blueshirts were never in danger of being out of the picture.  As Ryan Lindgren said about losing the first two games,  “We were down but we were never out. We come back here, feed off our crowd and get two big wins.”

Some issues remain

Despite the final score, the Hurricanes had 46 shots attempts at 5v5 compared to 32 for the Rangers and they had 11 high danger scoring chances compared to seven for New York.

Perhaps most disturbing is the Rangers’ lack of proficiency in the faceoff circle. The Canes won 64.7% of the faceoffs with their 33 wins almost double the Rangers’ 18.  For the entire series, Carolina has won 60% of the draws.  It’s a miracle that they haven’t able to take advantage of that on the scoresheet.  While Zibanejad and Copp held their own, winning 14 of 27 draws (52%),  Tyler Motte, Ryan Strome and Kevin Rooney only four of 20 (20%).

Let’s not even get into the 29 giveaways credited to the Rangers.

Artemi Panarin really needs to score a goal. He had three shots including one on the breakaway, but he still has not driven to the net or forced play.  On the fourth goal by Andrew Copp, Panarin was perched on the doorstep and that had to  be a distraction for Raanta when Copp took his shot.  So, his presence on the ice disrupts the Canes’ defense, but a goal would be nice.

Next game

The next game is Thursday night in Raleigh, again on ESPN at 7pm. There has been no word on what time Game Six will be on Saturday, nor who is televising it. The question is whether anyone be able to break through and win a game on Hurricanes’ home ice where they are undefeated in six games.

Frederik Andersen was back at practice on Tuesday and is getting closer to returning.  Raanta has done nothing to deserve a seat on the bench, but you never know.

That’s the challenge facing the Rangers as they head to North Carolina.