Hurricanes offense falls flat at home, season ends in Game 7 playoff loss to Rangers
This time, the Carolina Hurricanes were burned.
This time, they could not rely on home ice to help keep their season alive in a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The New York Rangers were the better team Monday in the deciding game of the second round, winning 6-2 at PNC Arena behind goalie Igor Shesterkin and handing the Hurricanes a bitter defeat.
The Hurricanes were 7-0 on home ice in the playoffs, turning back the Boston Bruins in Game 7 in the opening round and winning the first three games against the Rangers. But their inability to win a road game — the Canes were 0-6 in the playoffs — put them in a win-or-else position Monday and they were outplayed and beaten.
“Every year when it ends it’s always tough,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Tough for me, because it felt like we were in a different spot this year. I felt we were right there.”
It hurt the Canes that rookie forward Seth Jarvis was injured in the first period and knocked out of the game. It really stung when goalie Antti Raanta, who played so well much of the playoffs, left late in the second period with a lower-body injury.
The Rangers got power-play goals from Adam Fox and Chris Kreider in the first period for a 2-0 lead, then added a third from Ryan Strome in the second to push the lead to 3-0. When Kreider scored a second goal, in the third period, the game had been decided.
The Canes had their even-strength chances and three power plays in the first two periods, but did not get the puck past a goalie who is a finalist for the Hart and Vezina trophies until the third -- after the game had been decided.
Vincent Trocheck scored on a power play, finally giving Canes fans something to cheer, but the Rangers quickly responded as Filip Chytil scored for a 5-1 lead. Max Domi, the Canes’ Game 7 hero against the Bruins, added a goal in the final four minutes.
It was a miserable finish for the Canes, who set franchise records for wins and points in the regular season and beat out the Rangers to win the Metropolitan Division.
“I’m very proud of the group, overall,” Brind’Amour said. “A phenomenal year, just the way the guys played every game from the start of preseason all the way to now. They gave everything they had. I’m super proud of the steps we took this year and the group in general.”
Jarvis took a punishing hit from defenseman Jacob Trouba and suffered an upper-body injury. Raanta’s injury forced rookie Pyotr Kochetkov into the game for a second straight game.
The Hurricanes were 7-0 in Game 7’s since moving to North Carolina in 1997 and had former goalie Cam Ward, who had a 4-0 Game 7 record, sound the warning siren before the game,
None of that mattered once the game began. The Canes’ Sebastian Aho was called for hooking 1:42 into the game, and Fox beat Raanta to the glove side with two seconds remaining on the power play.
The Jarvis injury might have been the turning point of the game. Jarvis struggled to return to the bench and the Canes, who were in a change, were called for too many men on the ice for their second penalty.
Kreider redirected a Mika Zibanejad shot early in the power play and the Canes were in a 2-0 hole.
The Rangers were 1-for-7 on the power play in losing the first three games at PNC Arena, but were 2-2 in the first period Monday. The Canes were left to chase the game and never recovered.
This story was originally published May 30, 2022 at 10:48 PM.
