Regular Season, Game 81: Hurricanes at New York Rangers

The narrative for tonight's game is extremely simple. If the Canes pick up two points in any fashion, they'll be the Metropolitan Division champions. The opponent tonight is the team chasing them for the division crown. The Rangers trail the Canes by four points in the division but hold a game in hand in the final week of the season. This is the second time the Canes and Rangers have met this month and the final time they'll play before a potential meeting in the second round should both teams advance. After splitting the two previous meetings in Raleigh, the Canes traveled to Madison Square Garden 12 days ago for the first matchup between Frederik Andersen and Igor Shesterkin. The teams played to a scoreless tie in the first period, but K'Andre Miller opened the scoring just over a minute into the second period. The Canes pushed back hard and were able to get a friendly bounce when Andrei Svechnikov tossed one into the net off Shesterkin from behind the net to tie it up heading into the third period. The Canes scored an early goal in the third period courtesy of Seth Jarvis on a beautiful backhand to give the Canes their first lead before Jordan Staal continued his hot play by scoring a goal to make it 3-1. Chris Kreider would score his 50th goal of the season with Shesterkin on the bench, but Sebastian Aho completed a three-point night by burying an empty-net goal to give the Canes a 4-2 win in a crucial road win for the team. 

The last time out for the Canes against the Islanders was almost a disaster. Derek Stepan returned to the lineup with a vengeance by causing a turnover and slapping one through the legs of Semyon Varlamov to give the Canes an early 1-0 lead. Seth Jarvis added another goal shortly thereafter on the power play to give the Canes a two-goal lead. Before the end of the period, Ross Johnston responded for the Islanders to give them a goal in a period that they looked very good in despite the lack of scoring. Where the game almost became a disaster was midway through the period. Antti Raanta, who'd been playing amazingly to that point, made a great pad save on a deflected shot and was a little slow to get up. While clearly looking like he was in pain, he stayed in until a failed wrap-around attempt caused him to go down again and be replaced at the next whistle. Pyotr Kochetkov, fresh off a huge first win on Saturday, came in to replace Raanta with 7:03 left in the second period and was almost immediately tested with the Canes taking a penalty. On the first shot he faced, Ryan Pulock beat him with a screen in front to tie it up and cause us all to hold our breaths for the third period. In the third period, Max Domi broke through early and the team added two empty-net goals from Jesper Fast and Brendan Smith to give the Canes a 5-2 win and Kochetkov his second win. He'll get a chance to go at it again by starting tonight against the Rangers with a chance to win the division. Raanta will be backing him up after reports that it was more of a cramping issue for Raanta against the Islanders. Vincent Trocheck, who sat out the game Sunday for load management, will return to the lineup in place of Steven Lorentz. Ian Cole also comes back in for Ethan Bear.

Going into their game against Boston on Saturday, the Rangers had won seven of their last eight games, the lone loss coming to the Canes. They needed a win badly to keep pace with the Canes after they'd beaten the Devils earlier in the day. They were in Boston for their final road game of the season and they laid an egg thanks to an incredible performance by Linus Ullmark. David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall scored for the Bruins in the first two periods on Igor Shesterkin to give them a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes. Mika Zibanejad responded on a power play, but Trent Frederic scored the back-breaking goal to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead and back the Rangers into a corner. Andrew Copp and Filip Chytil, who both missed the game against Boston, will both play tonight, while Kappo Kakko will be out. Shesterkin is expected to start this important game. After tonight, the Rangers will have two games left, playing tomorrow against Montreal and Friday against Washington, while the Canes' lone remaining game in the regular season would be Thursday against New Jersey in Raleigh. A loss tonight doesn't end the Canes' chances of winning the division crown, it just makes the game against the Devils mean that much more. 

1st Period

Scoring

None

Thoughts

The two Russian goalies are going shot-for-shot so far tonight. Shesterkin has seen more Grade A chances, but Kochetkov has held his own against a strong Rangers offense. I thought the Canes came out a little slow, spending most of the first three minutes in the defensive zone, but slowly came on before the first commercial break. Niederreiter rang the outside of the post. The power play, especially the second unit, looked really good during its two chances, they just couldn't beat Shesterkin. There doesn't appear to be a sense of nervousness on the Canes' end of the ice with Kochetkov. He's come out of the net to play the puck and is controlling rebounds well. The kill will need to get the job done with the final 18 seconds of their first chance tonight before the offense takes over and finds a way to solve Shesterkin. 

2nd Period

Scoring

(CAR) 7:05- Vincent Trocheck (21) (assisted by Brady Skjei (28) & Nino Niederreiter (20))

(CAR) 13:48- Jordan Martinook (5) (assisted by Derek Stepan (9) & Martin Necas (25))

(NYR) 16:56- Chris Kreider (52) (assisted by Frank Vatrano (14))

(CAR) 18:19- Teuvo Teravainen (21) (assisted by Vincent Trocheck (29) & Brady Skjei (29))

Thoughts

The period started very badly. They killed the remaining 18 seconds of the first penalty, then immediately took another. Once they killed that one, they took a third penalty. Once that was all said and done, the Canes managed to kill all three penalties. The flood gates would open very soon after that. About two minutes after killing the final penalty, Brady Skjei set up Vincent Trocheck for a beautiful one-timer that he blasted past Shesterkin to get the Canes on the board first. Over six minutes later, Derek Stepan steps into another one-timer, but this one deflects in off Jordan Martinook and into the net to make it 2-0. The Rangers would respond with a goal of their own thanks to Chris Kreider, his 52nd of the season. The Canes didn't take long to respond as Teuvo Teravainen scored on a 2-on-1 to regain the two-goal lead. Pyotr Kochetkov has looked very steady all night. He didn't see much on the three kills, only having to stop four shots, but he responded well to the goal and has made sure to jump on the puck at every chance. He's playing up to the moment for sure. The period got a little chippy towards the end, so it'll be about maintaining composure and bringing this one home. 

3rd Period

Scoring

(CAR) 0:32- Sebastian Aho (37) (assisted by Seth Jarvis (22) & Jaccob Slavin (38))

(NYR) 13:12- Jacob Trouba (11) (assisted by K'Andre Miller (13) & Mika Zibanejad (52))

(NYR) 18:58- Alexis Lafreniere (18) (assisted by Chris Kreider (25) & Adam Fox (62))

Thoughts

It got hairy there at the very end with the Rangers scoring twice in the final seven minutes. It's incredible that the goal from Aho while it was 4-on-4 at the beginning of the period seemed to materialize out of nowhere and ends up being the game-winning goal. Despite losing the period 2-1, Kochetkov made some incredible saves early in the period to keep the Rangers down three that turned out to be huge saves. I can't give him any grief for either goal since one was deflected and the other was a one-timer. He stepped up in his second career start and third appearance and outdueled the likely Vezina winner. The Canes earned this win and they earned this division title against a very good Rangers team. 

Canes' Three Stars of the Game

Third Star- Vincent Trocheck (Goal, Assist)

Since he sat the last game for some load management, Trocheck came into tonight well-rested. He showed that by adding two points including the opening goal in the second period to get the Canes on the board. He also made an underrated tip pass to Teravainen late in the second to help him get in on a 2-on-1 and score the goal to restore the two-goal lead. 

Second Star- Brady Skjei (2 Assists)

The narrative of former Rangers returning to MSG has been a little overplayed in the last few weeks, but I'll add to it one last time. Skjei played a solid three-zone game tonight. He fed Trocheck a beautiful cross-ice one-timer feed and made a great outlet pass to Trocheck to set up the Turbo goal. He was jumping into the play all night against his former team and was rewarded. 

First Star- Pyotr Kochetkov (31 Saves on 34 Shots)

Allowing three goals is less than ideal, but that doesn't overshadow how huge this rookie played tonight. In just his third game, he went head-to-head with a fellow Russian stud and he outplayed him. He moved around like he's been playing in the league for years now. He wasn't phased by the moment in what was easily his biggest game yet. He finishes the road trip with all three wins and helped guide this team to the division crown.

Final Thoughts

This was a record-breaking night for the franchise. Along with winning the division for the second straight year, granted it was the Central last year, tonight's win gives the Canes 53 wins and 114 points, both breaking the 2005-06 team's marks. Teuvo Teravainen scored his 100th goal as a Hurricane and Sebastian Aho collected his 400th point in the NHL. The ending wasn't pretty, but the result is going to look good no matter how it happened. The win gives the Canes home ice through two rounds, but they can't look past the series to open up against the better of the two Wild Card teams. Tonight they got scoring from three of their leading goal-scorers, showing just how deep this team is. They'll need that moving forward. The Canes still have one more game in the regular season, but it doesn't mean a whole lot in retrospect. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some guys sit the game out for some rest. It'll be nice to watch the game without there being any stakes. They finished the road trip through New Jersey and New York with three wins and they got the job done.