The Rangers jumped on the Hurricanes early, scoring three goals in the first. Carolina rallied twice in the third to cut the lead to 3-2 and 4-3 but New York was able to hang on for the win. The Blueshirts' top-six tallied all four goals and notched 10 of the 11 points posted in the victory. As we saw, this series will be a war and a dogfight and grabbing a 1-0 series lead was huge. Game 2 is Tuesday night, 7pm at MSG.
Scratches: Brodzinski, Jones, Ruhwedel, Edstrom and Domingue
LTIR: Chytil, Wheeler
Game recap:
A few thoughts:
1) Mika May - Zibanejad, had at least for him, stretches during the regular season where he struggled. In round 1 against Washington, he - along with Vincent Trocheck - were the two best forwards for New York. Zib tallied a goal and six assists in the series win.
Mika May got off to a rousing start, as Zibanejad notched a pair of goals and an assist in the first period. Zib might have had a third, but he elected to pass when it was just him and Frederik Amdersen down low, drawing the exasperation of the Rangers' fan base. After a game like today, it's hard to find any fault with his play. For good measure, Zib clinched the win, thwarting Brent Burns at center ice as the clock wound down, just missing an empty net tally as well.
When Zib is rolling like this, the Rangers are a tough team to beat. On the first goal. great collection of the puck and speed wide by Jack Rosloviic, who beat Dmitry Orlov to create the space. A coverage misplay by Carolina, who left Zibanejad wide open in the slot for the first goal of the goal. His second goal and assist came on the man-advantage, which I will discuss next.
2) Special teams was the difference. While New York got two goals 5x5 - Zib and artemi Panarin - they were vastly outplayed in that regard, even though Carolina only scored twice at even-strength. The Rangers went 2-for-2 on the power play and stoned all five Hurricanes' man advantages, though one was only five seconds,
On the first, the goal was set up by a pretty passing sequence in which all five players touched the puck. Trocheck and Kreider each made no-look, behind-the-back dishes to set up a Zibanejad one-timer to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. On the second, a faceoff win by Trocheck started the play, which ended with Trocheck burying a rebound off a Zib shot to extend the lead to two. The two tallies, which came in 23 seconds of power play time, made New York 8-for-18 on the man advantage so far this postseason.
The penalty kill was huge. First, stay out of the damn box. Giving Carolina that many chances is a recipe for future disaster. Second, the Hurricanes's power play was set up as we thought they would. Lots of passes looking to create open angles for shots while also going from low to high in the slot. The Rangers have to remain active with their sticks, keep their feet moving and cut down the open spaces. The penalty kill limited the Canes to four shots on goal across more than eight minutes.
3) Blueline - Vince Mercogliano highlighted what I noted as well and what I planned on covering.. The Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox pairing had a brutal game, continuing a rough playoffs for the duo. As Mercogliano wrote,,"that duo was on ice for all three goals against and finished with a team-worst minus-two rating. They were out-chanced, 8-2, while allowing three of the Hurricanes' four high-danger scoring chances at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. Neither defensemen registered a shot attempt in the win."
Fox looked a step or two slow, which is a good indication that his leg - which was hit knee-by-knee by Nick Jensen - is not 100 percent. They need a healthy and elite Fox to win this round and advance far in the playoffs, The same with an effective Lindgren-Fox pairing, which has not been the case to date.
K'Andre Miller and Braden Schneider were the best pair while Jacob Trouba and Erik Gustafsson were mildly better than Fox and Lindgren, though I am not sure by how much. Trouba was the more effective of the two, despite his lack of foot speed.
4) Bread man delivers - Artemi Panarin had what proved to be the game-winning goal. After Martin Necas cut the lead to 3-2, taking advantage of a bad change and positioning by Fox and Lindgren, Carolina carried play for the next several minutes.
Alexis Lafreniere picked up the puck at center ice and his feed to Panarin caught him in stride on the wing that allowed him to cut in and fire a wrist shot from the left circle that went right through Frederik Andersen's body/arm and blocker to restore a two-goal lead with 11:39 left. Last year, Panarin would have looked to pass the puck. But his aggressiveness is what has helped result in the type of campaign he has had. That tally - Panarin's third GWG of the postseason - proved huge when Seth Jarvis cut the lead to one with 1:47 remaining and tied Jaromir Jagr at 124 for most points for a Ranger in a season.
Artemi Panarin is officially tied with Jagr for the most points ever for a #NYR in a single-season (regular season & postseason combined)! pic.twitter.com/VqwEOZBGFg
5) Carolina's style of play was what we expected. Man to man while forechecking everywhere and anywhere defensively. On offense, they will shoot from almost anywhere while looking to create open angels and go from high to low. The Rangers did a good job of counter attacking both in the first period but ceded the neutral and defensive zones to the Canes in the second and especially the third period.
New York held Carolina, which ranked third in the league this season with an average of 33.3 shots on goal per game, to a total of 25 SOG and only five high-danger scoring chances. But that doesn't tell the whole story, as an additional 29 shots were blocked, while the Canes notched a 72-45 advantage in shot attempts. Most of those were not high-danger and Igor was up to the task when needed. This is the contrast in styles of play, but you would like to see the gap in attempts and zone possession time a little bit closer.
In Game 2, we might see Matt Rempe again. Rempe was called for another questionable call, this one for goalie interference despite being pushed into Andersen by Jordan Staal (the officiating as a whole today was pretty inconsistent and that's being kind). He has a target on his back and sits third periods in close games, playing just 7:06 in the win today. I know the team's record with him in the lineup and what he does for the home crowd, but I think we see Filip Chytil or Jonny Brodzinski before too long. for the reasons just noted, despite the fact that he has been effective when on the ice
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