Power outage: New York Rangers edge Carolina Hurricanes in second-round opener, 4-3

Sometimes, the playoffs are as simple as special teams and goaltending. It’s a cliche, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

That was the difference Sunday — the special teams half of it, at least. The Carolina Hurricanes went 0-for-5 on the power play. The New York Rangers were 2-for-2 against the Hurricanes’ NHL-best penalty kill.

And the Rangers are 1-for-1 in their second-round series after a 4-2 win in Sunday’s opener at Madison Square Garden.

“If we go minus-2 in that one every game, it’s not going to work,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

The pace was quick early and so was the scoring, with four goals in the first period — two from Mika Zibanejad as the Rangers converted their only two power plays of the game to take a 3-1 lead through one.

Some tic-tac-toe passing from Dmitry Orlov to Jordan Martinook to Martin Necas set Necas loose down the slot to beat Igor Shesterkin and pull the Hurricanes within a goal early in the third before Artemi Panarin beat Frederik Andersen from the left wing shortly after to restore the Rangers’ two-goal lead.

Seth Jarvis scored with the Carolina net empty and 105 seconds to go to make it 4-3 late, a man-advantage goal of a different kind. The Hurricanes briefly had a power play in the final 40 seconds when the Rangers sent the puck over the glass but a tripping call on Andrei Svechnikov nullified it six seconds later.

And that was that.

“You can’t spot them a couple goals like that, especially that team,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “I felt we battled hard, got to our game. Whether they were sitting back or getting to our game, little bit of both, but we had a chance to get it. We’re going to learn from this one. Did some really good things. Five-on-five was there, especially. Special teams have to be better.”

Andersen allowed four goals on 23 shots before being pulled for the extra attacker; Shesterkin allowed three on 25 shots.

A quick start

The first two shots of the series both ended up in the back of the either net before the Rangers scored two power-play goals in the opening 20 minutes to take an early 3-1 lead.

After Zibanejad was left alone to slot home a Jack Roslovic pass less than three minutes in, Jaccob Slavin answered for the Hurricanes less than a minute later with a shot from the left point that took a big deflection. Zibanejad’s opening goal was the first against Staal’s line at five-on-five in the playoffs.

“You give them a quick one there, the crowd gets into it, we respond and then the penalty-kill — boom, boom,” Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo said. “It’s just kind of how it goes in the playoffs. They’ve got a good team but we know what we’ve got in here and we’ve got six more games.”

Zibanejad added his second on the power play off a feed from Chris Kreider. He had two chances at the first-period hat trick, but slipped one to Vincent Trocheck for the Rangers’ second power-play goal and turned it over instead of shooting on the third.

Reviewing the review

There was a moment of confusion in the first when Necas hit Will Cuylle along the boards and DeAngelo stepped in and leveled Cuylle from the side. Necas was originally in the penalty box as the officials reviewed to see if there was a major penalty on the play, then ended up calling DeAngelo for roughing instead.

According to the NHL rulebook, a major penalty review can only confirm the penalty, reduce it to a minor or rescind it entirely. Changing a called penalty to another player is not an option, which raises the question of what exactly happened.

Asked if he got an explanation on the play, Brind’Amour shrugged. “Not one that made sense,” he said.

“The original call was a trip, I think?” Staal said. “And then they decided that they were going to review the hit. I didn’t get much on that one. We ended up with the two, which assuming there was a penalty on that play, is unfortunate. But we have to kill them.”

Staal, Slavin NHL trophy finalists

Staal has been a finalist for the Selke Trophy, which goes to the NHL’s top defensive forward, once before.

Fourteen years before.

The Carolina Hurricanes captain’s gap between appearing as a finalist is the longest in NHL history for the same trophy, as he joined Slavin among his teammates as finalists for NHL awards announced Saturday and Sunday. Staal was a Selke finalist in 2010 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, when he finished second in the voting, and a finalist in 2018 for the Masterton Trophy, which honors perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

“I’m happy for him to get the recognition of the type of player he is and has been his whole career,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Sunday. “It’s a big honor for him and well deserved.”

Slavin is once again a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy, awarded to the player who best combines sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct with a high standard of playing ability. Slavin won the Lady Byng in 2021, when he committed only one minor penalty all season. Slavin committed a whopping four times that many this season — and two were delay-of-game penalties for shooting the puck over the glass in his own end.

Earlier this week, Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen was named a finalist for the Masterton Trophy.

Slavin, who was also a Lady Byng runner-up in 2022, said Saturday he is grateful to be chosen as a finalist, also explaining the term “gentlemanly conduct” to him means, “Playing the game the right way and not being dirty between whistles. The game’s a hard game and you can still play the game hard, but you do it in the right way and treat people with respect.”

“They don’t just give it to someone who doesn’t take penalties,” Brind’Amour said Saturday. “It’s elite players who are able to play within the confines of the rules. It’s given to an elite player who does it right. Any award you get nominated for is special. The way he does it is special.”

The other two Lady Byng finalists announced Saturday were Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews and Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson. Ron Francis (2002) is the only other Hurricanes player to win the Lady Byng.

Staal is the second Hurricanes player in franchise history to be named a Selke finalist, joining Brind’Amour, who won the award in both 2006 and 2007. Staal had 30 points in 80 games for the Hurricanes during the regular season. He was also often called upon to take faceoffs against other teams’ top centers, and the lines he centered were most often used against other teams’ top lines.

The other finalists for this season’s Selke Trophy are Florida’s Aleksander Barkov and Toronto’s Auston Matthews. Barkov won the Selke in 2021.

Off the hop

Going into Game 1, Brent Burns was one of only six defensemen in NHL history to average more than a point per game in Game 1s of playoff series. Former Hurricanes defenseman Paul Coffey is one of the other five. Burns duly picked up an assist on Jarvis’ goal.

The Hurricanes are now 13-14 in Game 1s since relocation and 2-7 in true road games. The two wins: at Detroit in the 2002 Stanley Cup finals and at the New York Islanders in the 2019 second round.