Recap: Canes Again Fall to Rangers

Analysis from New York
→ For the second time this week, the Carolina Hurricanes were edged by the New York Rangers with the game-winner being scored in the third period. Viktor Stalberg and Victor Rask scored for the Hurricanes, while Chris Kreider's two goals in the final 10 minutes of the game lifted the Rangers to a 4-2 victory.
"We're just not capitalizing on our chances," Lee Stempniak said. "We're doing a lot of little things right. We're leaving our zone pretty well and moving the puck cleanly, we're just not able to capitalize."
"I thought we were a good team early. We had some chances where we could have had the lead, and if we were to get the lead, to extend the lead," head coach Bill Peters said. "You've got to get hungry to score. You can't be just content to play well. You need offensive contributions out of your top six. That's the reality."

→ It was a 1-1 game heading into the third period. The Hurricanes had controlled play for much of the first 40 minutes, at one point tripling the Rangers on the shot chart. New York then pushed back and began to tilt the ice in their favor in the third period.
"They came with a push. I think they did that the other night too," Peters said. "You've got to be able to spend more time in the offensive zone. We started to turn pucks over at the offensive blue line, and that became a little bit of a problem for us. We didn't have enough zone time, and when you're not in the offensive zone, you're going to spend too much time defending. We did that in the final 20 minutes."
The Rangers scored first to break the deadlock, as Michael Grabner was left all alone in front on a rush and finished. The Hurricanes challenged that the play was offside - and the replay showed an incredibly close play at the blue line - but the officials ruled that video was inconclusive.
To their credit, the Hurricanes had the quick answer. Rask's point shot took a bounce and beat Henrik Lundqvist to draw the score even once more.
In the last eight minutes of the game, Kreider scored twice, and that was the difference. New York won the race to three goals and earned the two points.
"We had a great start to the game. We didn't give them anything," Stempniak said. "All of a sudden they were all over us for a stretch. We weathered that storm … but we were just never able to find a way to capitalize on our chances."
"We didn't play as well as we did in the first two periods," Rask said. "It's definitely really frustrating. … We've got to be better than that."
"Especially when you get a few injuries, you need guys to step up," Peters said. "Three (goals) is the magic number. You've got to be able to get to three."
The Hurricanes are now winless in their last 13 trips to Madison Square Garden with a 0-10-3 record dating back to Jan. 5, 2011.
→ Viktor Stalberg must just know how to beat his fellow Swede and former teammate Lundqvist, as he scored his third goal in two games against the Rangers just this week in the second period.
As Ryan McDonagh was carrying the puck out of the zone, Stalberg was hounding him and eventually forced the neutral zone turnover. Derek Ryan set the puck off for Brock McGinn, who then slid it over to Stalberg on the far wing. Stalberg walked in and scored on a wrist shot to make it a 1-1 game.
"He fits the modern game, a big guy who can skate well," Peters said.
→ Early in the second period, the Hurricanes and Rangers traded shifts on which one hemmed the other in their own zone. First it was the Canes working the puck around like a power play, as J.T. Miller was without a stick. Andrej Nestrasil had a golden rebound opportunity on the doorstep, but Lundqvist tracked it and made a great save. The Rangers would eventually break another stick but dump the puck out and survive.
Then it was their turn to hem the Canes in, and they did in similar fashion, as Jeff Skinner broke his stick.
All the while, Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin were on the ice. They hopped over the boards at the 17:18 mark and didn't get off the ice until the 12:17 mark, a 5:01 shift. The Hurricanes iced the puck at one point, both players bending over to catch their breaths. Skinner retrieving a new stick and Peters thinking long and hard about the timeout served as a pseudo timeout, but it still took the defensive pair another minute to finally skate to the bench.
→ Andrej Nestrasil drew back into the lineup tonight, as Elias Lindholm was sidelined with a lower-body injury. Michael Leighton made 19 saves on 23 shots in his second start of the season.
→ Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning, who host the Washington Capitals tonight. By the time the puck drops in that game, the Hurricanes should be back at RDU. It's then a 5 p.m. faceoff between the Canes and Bolts on Sunday, the second half of a back-to-back and another brief one-game stop before the team heads back out for yet another three-game road swing.
"We can't worry about Tampa Bay. We've got to worry about ourselves," Peters said. "We make it harder than it needs to be. The best example of that is we're on a 5-on-3, and the next thing you know, we're not. Those are situations where you have to make sure you capitalize and do the right things. If you do the right things long enough, you're going to get rewarded. If you do things that are counter-productive to being successful, then it's going to be hard."
"I think at this point we're sort of beyond moral victories. We need to start producing wins," Stepniak said. "We've got to be desperate for a win. We're not in a position where we can let games slip away. … It's going to be another tough challenge for us, but we've just got to continue to do a lot of similar things that we're doing and at the same time, find a way to fight through and find more than two goals."