Canes Come Up Short Against Rangers

NEW YORK - The Carolina Hurricanes' three-game win streak was snapped on Thursday, falling 2-1 to the New York Rangers.

Discipline Struggles Continue Out of the Gate...

The top two teams in the Metropolitan Division both arrived at Madison Square Garden for tonight's matchup riding hot streaks. With Carolina a winner of their last three, and New York returning home after a five-game sweep of their western road trip, both have had success in different ways to start the campaign.

New York's defense has been a shining factor to start the year, with only the Boston Bruins (14) allowing fewer goals than their 18 entering Thursday's play.

On the other side, Carolina's 37 goals allowed entered the night tied as the most given up league-wide.

And when the action began, it looked like we were in for a high-scoring affair.

Just 2:41 in, with the Canes down a man after a too many men infraction, Chris Kreider cashed in for New York.

One of what would be three penalties in the opening 20 minutes for Carolina, the visitors simply provided too many opportunities to a Rangers team that came into the night with the league's second-best power play (34.4%).

It Only Takes One Though...

Fortunately for Carolina, another quality performance from Frederik Andersen between the pipes kept the deficit just one.

Sandwiched between the Canes' two other penalty kills the rest of the frame, New York took one penalty of their own. Like Carolina, a too many men call sent them shorthanded, and on their lone power play chance of the first, Seth Jarvis earned the equalizer for his group.

Following a deceptive pass from Sebastian Aho, #24 walked in and beat Igor Shesterkin.

Finding Their Game Defensively...

Jarvis' fifth of the season would send the game to the second period tied, and that same 1-1 score would hold until the third.

Although there was no amendment to the score during the middle 20 minutes, it was a positive stanza for Carolina, as they continue to find more of their defensive footing.

The team has become synonymous with keeping teams to the outside in the offensive zone and limiting the opposing offense's chances under Rod Brind'Amour, and tonight's second period looked exactly like the game that the team wants to play.

"Building a game", the Canes gave up just four shots in the second period and took just one penalty.

Another Game Decided In The Third...

The Rangers, too good of a team to be held to just four shots for consecutive periods, got back on the horse in the third period though.

For the second time in as many games, Carolina had hoped to find a game-winner, in search of something to follow Teuvo Teravainen's efforts from Monday in Philadelphia.

Instead, they found themselves on the other side of the coin tonight.

Despite Andersen's best efforts in net for the Canes, including another handful of marquee stops, rookie Will Cuylle slipped loose during a defensive breakdown.

New York's youngster found a soft spot between two Carolina skaters and put himself in position to accept a pass before depositing one behind Andersen for the game-winning goal.

They Said It...

Rod Brind'Amour's assessment of the affair...

"Our first period was no good because we were in the box the whole time. There was no flow. We were lucky to come out of that 1-1. Our power play made a nice play to tie the game and that's all we had because the rest [of the period] we were in the box. Then we slowly got going. We had a pretty good third, but we took one breather. We came off our guy in the corner. He made a nice play [on their goal], but that's not how we do it."

Brady Skjei on what went wrong for the team tonight...

"We said from the beginning that their power play is their biggest weapon and taking five penalties is not the way to win. Staying out of the box in the future is huge, especially against a team like this."

Sebastian Aho providing his thoughts...

"It was a hard-fought game. They're a really good team. We just have to find a way there at the end to win a hockey game."

What's Next?

The Canes will stay in New York post-game because their next game is Saturday on Long Island against the Islanders.

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