*Photo from the Toledo Blade*
New York wins series 4-2
Another series has reached the end. Artemi Panarin had two assists, Chris Kreider had a natural hat trick, and the New York Rangers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes with a 5-3 victory Thursday night in Raleigh.
The win secures the series victory for the Rangers, stamping their ticket to the eastern conference finals in the process. Trailing by two goals entering the 3rd period, the President's Trophy winning Rangers flexed their offensive muscles with 4 unanswered goals in the 3rd.
New York captain Jacob Trouba said of the series win that "There’s a belief in the room and a trust in the guys that’s been built over the time we’ve spent together here. We know what’s on the line, we only get so many cracks at it. We wanted to end this thing tonight after letting it slip away in New York, so that was the focus. We knew we had one more period to get it done. A lot of guys stepped up big."
Martin Necas scored the only goal of the first period, putting the Hurricanes up 1-0 after one. Seth Jarvis scored on the power play in the second period to make it 2-0. Vincent Trocheck got one back for the Rangers to make it 2-1 before Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes, making it 3-1 on his 4th goal of the playoffs.
Kreider started the rally in the 3rd, scoring his 5th goal of the playoffs to cut the deficit to 3-2. He scored his second goal of the night on the power play to tie the game 3-3. He capped off the hat trick and put the Rangers ahead 4-3 at the 15:41 mark of the 3rd before Barclay Goodrow sealed the win with an empty net goal.
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said of Kreider "That is just a monster 3rd period. I mean, put it on his back and he really delivered. It was more than him, but at the end of the day we needed to score goals, and this is what he does and this is what he did tonight."
Igor Shesterkin was the obvious starter once again for the Rangers, picking up his 8th win of the postseason in dramatic fashion. Shesterkin stopped 33 of the 36 shots he faced from the Hurricanes, giving him a .917 save percentage.
Getting the start between the pipes for the Hurricanes was Frederik Andersen, getting the loss as Carolina's season came to an end in round two. Andersen made 19 saves on the 23 shots he saw from the Rangers, good for a .826 save percentage.
Aho said after the game that "We had chances to build the lead, but obviously we couldn’t do it. Whoever scores a goal gets a little momentum, and they did a good job riding the momentum. It just didn’t go our way."
The Rangers advance to the eastern conference finals, where they await the winner of the series between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers. The Hurricanes head home early in the summer again without a cup.
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