On a night when they had a chance to cross the playoff cut line in the Eastern Conference, the Carolina Hurricanes were stymied by a hot goalie, surrendered the game winner in the third period and fell 2-1 to the New York Rangers at PNC Arena Tuesday.
Forward Jordan Martinook scored the Canes’ (31-23-6) lone goal and Curtis McElhinney stopped 24 of 26 shots in net. Carolina peppered Rangers (26-25-8) goalie Henrik Lundqvist with 44 shots, but could not find more than one tally in a frustrating loss as the team continues its playoff push.
“[Lundqvist] was good,” Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “[McElhinney] was good. Both goalies went at it; [Lundqvist] made a few more saves, especially at the end. It’s a tough loss, because we played well enough, played a good 60 minutes and just didn’t score.”
The Canes nearly took a 1-0 lead at the tail end of a power play about nine minutes in, but forward Micheal Ferland tipped a shot off the goal post.
The Canes finally broke the ice with 10:07 to play in the second period with a slick goal. Defenseman Dougie Hamilton slid down from the point after a give and go with forward Andrei Svechnikov and slid a pass to Martinook, who roofed his own rebound over Rangers goalie Lundqvist to put his team up 1-0.
The Rangers tied the game at one less than a minute later as forward Connor Brickley crashed the net and knocked a rebound past McElhinney. The tally was initially waved off by the referees on the basis that he illegally knocked it in with his body, but a lengthy review reversed the call and made it a 1-1 game.
“[There was] a bad bounce here or there,” Martinook said. “I think in our last three games that’s probably the best one we’ve played and we come out on the other end of it. This time of year you’ve just go to kind of push that one aside. We’ve got to keep moving forward and every game is so huge for us right now.”
The Rangers crashed the net and got a puck in less than a minute into the third period, but it was waved off as Rangers forward Chris Kreider was whistled for interference for pushing Canes defenseman Brett Pesce into McElhinney. McElhinney was shaken up and checked out by a trainer, but remained in the game.
The Canes came inches from taking the lead on the ensuing power play, but defenseman Justin Faulk launched a point shot off the goal post.
“We had a good mindset going into the third period,” forward and captain Justin Williams said. “We’ve been successful in third periods and had comebacks; it just didn’t happen. We hit a couple posts tonight and it just didn’t go our way tonight which is the way it goes sometimes.”
Just after Carolina’s man advantage expired, a holding penalty to forward Lucas Wallmark and trip to forward Brock McGinn gave New York 42 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play. The Canes killed the first penalty, but Rangers forward Vladislav Namestikov knocked in a rebound to give the Blueshirts a 2-1 lead just after the second expired.
“They’re always tough when you take penalties,” Brind’Amour said. “It was a kill that we did a nice job on. Unfortunately, really, at the end of that, it bounced over our stick on a clear and they just pounced on it. So it was just unfortunate bounces there. Hockey’s random like that sometimes.”
After a noticeable shift in momentum to New York after Namestikov’s goal, the Canes got going and pressed hard for the equalizer in the last seven minutes of the game. Brind’Amour pulled McElhinney for an extra skater with 2:22 to play, but the Canes could not solve Lundqvist despite a late, point-blank chance for Williams, and missed a chance at an important two points in the standings.
“I was just trying to catch it and get it up high,” Williams said. “I think actually a defenseman got a stick on it. But he was right there and I wasn’t able to rebound that. We certainly had a lot of chances to win, that’s for sure. It didn’t go our way. That was a big one that slipped away.”
The loss leaves the Canes three points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the third seed in the Metropolitan Division, but just one back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the East’s final Wild Card spot (though Columbus has a game in hand). The team will need to move on quickly and keep picking up points; the Canes are back in action Thursday night with a visit to the Florida Panthers.
“I don’t think we have much of an option,” Martinook said. “Every point is so big for us right now and everything matters so much. Definitely the losses hurt a little more right now. Everybody’s got to think about it for a half hour, an hour, go home and then come with the mindset tomorrow that we’re going to win our next game. Just look at the Florida game and go from there. That’s all we can do right now.”
New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist blocks a goal attempt by the Carolina Hurricane's centerman Sebastian Aho on Tuesday, Feb. 19 in PNC Arena. Lundqvist stopped 43 shots made by the Hurricanes and only allowed one goal during the entire game. The Hurricanes lost to the New York Rangers 2-1.
