Hurricanes win Game 5 and bring Rangers to the brink of elimination – CBS17.com

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — Vincent Trocheck buried a shorthanded goal, Teuvo Teravainen produced a rare power play result for Carolina and the Hurricanes defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 on Thursday night to go 3-2 in the playoff series the second round.

Andrei Svechnikov also scored, defeating Igor Shesterkin with a backhander on a breakaway midway through the third period as the Hurricanes defended their Game 5 lead.

It was part of another strong home performance from the Metropolitan Division champions, who improved to 7-0 at home in the postseason.

The Hurricanes can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals to face reigning two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay by winning Game 6 in New York on Saturday despite being 5-0 away from PNC Arena so far despite being regulars fighting for the NHL lead -season road wins.

The Hurricanes controlled long stretches of the game, maintaining their aggressive style and finishing with a 34-17 shooting advantage to keep the pressure on Shesterkin while relieving Antti Raanta (16 saves) in the Carolina net.

Now Carolina faces the challenge of eliminating a team that was resilient, even tenacious, despite coming from behind. The Rangers rebounded from a 3-1 hole to beat Pittsburgh in a seven-game first-round streak, then lost the first two games to Carolina before even fighting back at home.

Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal for New York, winning a first-half faceoff and then drifting to the left flank to take the lead just six seconds ahead of the man. Shesterkin – a finalist for both the Vezina Trophy for Best Goalkeeper in the League and the Hart Trophy for Most Valuable Player – ended with 31 saves against a steady stream of work.

Rangers also saw a second-half goal from Ryan Strome for a 2-1 lead that was wiped out by an offside challenge from Carolina.

The Hurricanes’ power-play struggles have been going on for two months, with coach Rod Brind’Amour preaching the importance of execution more than any major changes to what was then one of the league’s top-10 units. But things just hadn’t improved as Carolina converted just 9 of 89 chances (10.1%) into this game since the end of March.

But after a 0-9 start to the series, the Hurricanes finally broke through with a quick and crisp puck action. Rookie Seth Jarvis blasted the puck to Teravainen to beat Shesterkin 2-1 at 9:47 from the second side, marking Carolina’s first man-advantage goal since the closing minutes of Game 6 in the first round series win over Boston.

Carolina’s first goal also came from special teams, although that came from a perfectly executed brief rush after a turnover from Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba. Jordan Staal carried the puck down the left until Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller tried to stop a pass, but Staal lifted the puck off the ice and over Miller’s legs for a rushing trocheck down the right for a 1-0 lead at 12: 57 from the first.

LONG-TERM

Carolina’s seven-game home win streak is the longest in a postseason since Chicago won its first seven games in 2014, a streak that ended in the Conference Finals.

Carolina’s seven-game home streak is the longest in franchise history for a single postseason.

SIREN HANDSET

Retired American soccer star Clint Dempsey sounded the “Storm Warning” siren before the game for the Hurricanes to take over the ice.

NASCAR driver Harrison Burton sounded the siren on the first break, followed by North Carolina State soccer coach Dave Doeren – whose wolfpack plays across from the PNC Arena parking lot at Carter Finley Stadium – on the second break.

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