NEW YORK – Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal off a rebound at 7:24 of the second overtime to give the New York Rangers a 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night and a 2-0 in their second game. Round playoff series.
Alexis Lafreniere scored twice, Chris Kreider also scored a power-play goal and Artemi Panarin added two assists for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin stopped a season-high 54 shots.
The Rangers won their sixth straight postseason game and eighth straight dating back to the regular season. New York earned its first playoff overtime victory since Game 7 of the 2022 first round against Pittsburgh.
Jake Guentzel scored twice, Dmitry Orlov also scored and Sebastian Aho had three assists for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen finished with 35 saves.
The Hurricanes have lost three of their last four, including two in double overtime after winning the first three games of the first round. The Hurricanes have lost four straight postseason games in overtime, including two against Florida in the conference finals a year ago.
The series moves to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the next two games, with the third game being played Thursday night.
Shesterkin made a kick save from Martin Necas a minute and a half into the second overtime period and made a pad save from Jordan Staal at the close about 30 seconds later. At the other end, Andersen made a stellar save from Panarin’s shot.
The Hurricanes, who went 0 for 5 on the power play, gained a lead when Panarin was called for hooking at 3:28. They only managed one shot.
The Rangers then turned in their seventh power play of the night and Trocheck scored on the rebound to extend his scoring streak to five games.
Shesterkin made good stops on attempts by Aho and Jaccob Slavin during a Hurricanes power play near the middle of the first overtime period.
Mika Zibanejad entered alone against Andersen, but his attempt was smothered by the goalkeeper with 8:15 left. Lafreniere was denied on a point-blank attempt with about 2 minutes left, and Zibanejad was stopped by Andersen on a 2-on-1 attack in the final minute of the first overtime.
Kreider tied it 3-3 at 6:07 of the third period with the Rangers’ third goal of the series against a Hurricanes team that had the league’s best penalty kill all season.
Trocheck received a pass from Panarin in front and Andersen saved his attempt with a kick. However, Kreider hit the loose puck from the left side while the goalie was on the ground for his first of the series and third of the postseason. It was also Kreider’s 43rd career postseason goal, the most in franchise history, and his 70th point, the third most behind Brian Leetch (89) and Mark Messier (80).
The Rangers had another power play when Jordan Martinook was ejected for tripping at 9:54. They had two shots on goal during the lead, but the Hurricanes had a great scoring opportunity when Shesterkin denied a Brady Skjei attempt.
Shesterkin also knocked down a Skjei try with just over five minutes remaining, then parried his attempt on the rebound.
The Rangers got their sixth power play of the night when Skjei was called for tripping with 1:38 left. However, the Hurricanes had the best chances when Shesterkin made a nice save from Seth Jarvis on a rare, short run. Then the goaltender, who made 17 saves in the third period, denied a shot by Aho and a rebound attempt by Jalen Chatfield.
Trailing 2-1 after 20 minutes, the Rangers tied it at 7:32 of the second when Lafreniere redirected a pass in front of Adam Fox for his second of the game. With the Hurricanes on a power play, Shesterkin scored on Brent Burns’ shot at 9:04 to keep the tie.
Guentzel gave the Hurricanes their second lead of the night with a one-timer in the slot off a pass from Aho from the left corner with 1:42 left in the middle period. It was Guentzel’s second of the night and gave Aho five assists in two games in the series.
Lafreniere took a pass from K’Andre Miller and fired into the top left corner from the left circle to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead with 9:07 left in the first period.
The Hurricanes tied it with 4:53 left in the first when Guentzel deflected Aho’s one-timer through traffic for his second of the playoffs.
The teams skated four-on-four after the Rangers’ Barclay Goodrow and the Hurricanes’ Stefan Noesen were awarded penalties in the final minute of the first period. The Hurricanes took advantage of the open ice when Orlov deflected Brady Skjei’s shot past Shesterkin with 5.4 seconds left to take the lead.
