Canes cannot solve Rangers in 4-1 loss

The work ethic shone through. The effort was evident.

The final result, though, did not reflect all that had been accomplished.

Essentially, the Carolina Hurricanes’ 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden encapsulated their 2014-15 campaign.

“(I) thought we controlled a lot of the play,” Jordan Staal said. “Just (had) a few breakdowns (and) that’s a good team that will make you pay quick.”

Carolina is 0-4 against New York this season, and has lost 15-of-16 to the Rangers dating back to Feb. 22, 2011. All time, the Hurricanes are 49-69-7-2 against New York.

The teams will meet once more this season, Mar. 21 at PNC Arena.

Despite the loss, the Hurricanes finished January with a 7-3-2 record, their first winning month in the campaign.

“We’ve had a great stretch,” defenseman Ryan Murphy said. “We’re a good team.”

But one that was disappointed in itself for yielding two first-period goals despite outshooting New York 15-8. The Hurricanes were outshot 37-32 and out-attempted 64-62.

Rick Nash opened the scoring 6 minutes, 30 seconds into the game with his 29th goal of the season. Nash corralled an Andrej Sekera turnover in the neutral zone, carried the puck into the offensive zone and whipped a shot from the top of the left circle that beat Cam Ward.

New York’s lead grew to 2-0 later when Dominic Moore beat Justin Faulk with an inside-out move before sliding the puck under Ward for a short-handed goal. The man-up goal allowed was the third the Hurricanes have surrendered this season.

“I thought both of their goals early were gifts from us,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said, before criticizing the Canes for forcing Ward to make 16 saves in the third period. “We can’t let (Ward) fend for himself.”

Ward’s counterpart, Lundqvist, finished with 31 saves, yielding just Brad Malone’s fourth of the season – and third in his last five games – 5:38 into the second, despite giving the 18,006 in attendance a scare after he was stuck in the neck by a Brad Malone shot a split second after teammate Ryan McDonagh’s stickblade inadvertently lifted up his mask.

“He was great,” Murphy said of Lundqvist. “He took a pretty heavy shot. That could (have been) dangerous.”

The New York goaltender made his two best stops of the game in second period. The first was a skate save on Andrej Nestrasil 1:43 into the period, and the other was a glove save on Alex Semin with 6:46 left and the Rangers clinching to a 2-1 lead.

Chris Kreider and Dan Boyle added third-period goals 21 seconds apart for New York, which snapped its two-game losing streak.

Prior to the game, Peters announced that Nestrasil, Semin and John-Michael Liles drew back into the lineup in place of Elias Lindholm, Brett Bellemore and Chris Terry.

Semin, who had not played since Jan. 16, started the game as the right wing on a line with Eric and Jordan Staal. Semin attempted seven shots in 17:01 of ice time, and the trio combined for six shots and 16 attempts.

“I’m just dressing our best lineup every night, trying to win; guys who can contribute to us being a good team are going to play,” said Peters, who did not commit to keeping Semin, Nestrasil and Liles in the lineup when the team heads to California this week when asked after the game. “I expect him to be a real good player tonight, be very hungry, no different than (Nestrasil and Liles).

“(Semin’s) been good (in practice). He’s shooting the puck, shooting the puck hard, been working harder to get open, moving his feet. Those are all good signs and hopefully it continues on into the game.”

Neither team held a morning skate at the Garden due to the Providence Friars-St. John’s Red Storm men’s college basketball game at noon.

This story was originally published January 31, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Canes cannot solve Rangers in 4-1 loss."