Nearly a year ago, the New York Rangers eliminated the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6 of a second-round series via a hat trick by Chris Kreider.
Eleven months later, things are drastically different for the Metropolitan Division foes. Two days after clinching home ice in the opening round, the Hurricanes host the disappointing Rangers on Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, N.C.
The Hurricanes (46-27-5, 97 points) are locked into second place in the Metropolitan, giving them home ice over the New Jersey Devils in a first-round series. Carolina will finish first or second in the division for the fourth straight season, and is attempting to reach 100 points for the fourth time in as many campaigns.
Carolina also is trying to stop a season-high four-game losing streak that continued when it was unable to score in the shootout of Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Washington Capitals. The Hurricanes are on their worst slide after winning 12 of 14 (12-2-0) from March 2-April 2.
Seth Jarvis scored the tying goal late in the third and has eight of his 31 goals over his past 16 contests. Jordan Martinook also scored in the third period after the Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead before allowing the next four goals.
“It’s adversity like that, and you’ve got to battle through. We’re going to run into something like that in the playoffs, for sure,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “It’s trusting our game and keep moving forward and finding ways, especially in the playoffs. It’s going to be a battle. It’ll be a lot of fun, and tonight was a good playoff-kind of style.”
Other than Thursday’s 9-2 rout over the New York Islanders in Elmont, N.Y., the Rangers (37-35-7, 81 points) rarely responded to adversity for large portions of the season. After getting outscored 17-6 in a three-game losing streak that pushed them eight points behind the Montreal Canadiens, the Rangers temporarily avoided elimination with their most dominant showing all season.
“We know what the situation is,” New York forward Vincent Trocheck said. “And we’ve just got to focus on each game, trying to get better, whether it’s a push for the playoffs, or a push to make ourselves better going into next year, and focusing on the details of our game and trying to fine-tune some things.”
With the Canadiens losing to the Ottawa Senators on Friday, the Rangers remain mathematically alive for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, trailing Montreal by six points with both teams having three games remaining.
After allowing six goals in the third period of an 8-5 home loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday, the Rangers scored four in the opening period Thursday and finished with nine goals for the first time since March 17, 2021, though they conceded 46 shots on goal.
Artemi Panarin scored twice and is attempting to reach 40 goals for the second straight season after finishing with 49 and 120 points when the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy last season for the first time since 2014-15.
Panarin has 14 goals in his past 20 games, but the Rangers are 8-9-3 in that span, putting them on the brink of missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
The Hurricanes outscored the Rangers 11-4 in the first three meetings, including a 4-3 home win on Nov. 27 when Jarvis and Jackson Blake scored power-play goals in a comeback win.
–Field Level Media
