Recap: Canes Topped by Rangers

NEW YORK - The Carolina Hurricanes dropped a 6-3 decision to the New York Rangers on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
Teuvo Teravainen, Lee Stempniak and Victor Rask tallied for the Hurricanes, but Jimmy Vesey netted a hat trick for the Rangers, who exacerbated the final score with a pair of empty-net goals.
Here are five takeaways from tonight's game in the Big Apple.

One
Madison Square Garden is, for all intents and purposes, a haunted house for the Hurricanes at this point. The Canes are now winless in 15 straight games (0-12-3) at The World's Most Famous Arena, their last victory coming on Oct. 29, 2010. They've been outscored 54-20 in that stretch.
It's a streak that's a head-scratcher in ways - numerous iterations of Hurricanes and Rangers teams have faced each other in the last eight years - and one that will have to wait until the 2018-19 regular season to possibly end.
Two
The Hurricanes showed some resiliency, thrice trailing by a goal and thrice answering to tie the game. But the scoring pattern continued and the final horn sounded before the Canes were able to even the score for a fourth time.
Derek Ryan was stripped of the puck in the neutral zone, and the Rangers took it the other way. Vesey then wired a shot short side that beat Scott Darling, and that was the difference in the game.
"To come back, tie it up and then lose the lead again, it's a tough one to swallow," Stempniak said.
"it seemed like we were chasing the game a lot," head coach Bill Peters said. "Every time we got it tied up, they would score in three, four or five minutes and we were chasing again."
Three
Can the Hurricanes extrapolate the positive from scoring to tie the game three times and not get buried in a multi-goal deficit? Sure. But points are at a premium at this point in the season, and moral victories are tough to accept.
"If you're really looking for positives, that's the positive. But we're in a hole right now," Stempniak said.
"It's a resilient group, there's no issue there," Peters said. "But there are no moral victories, especially at this time of year."
Here's a familiar refrain: the Hurricanes paced the Rangers in both shots, 44-23, and shot attempts, 86-41, but still come up empty in the win column.
"You want to get quality shots and make it difficult on the goalie. I thought we did that today," Stempniak said. "We had a lot of chances. It's a tough game to lose. They're all must-wins at this point given where we are in the standings."
"We haven't been able to break through," Peters said.
Four
Aho and Teravainen continue to be a dynamic wing pairing for the Hurricanes. The two Finns connected once again to get the Hurricanes on the board in the first period and tie the game at one. Aho's initial shot was knocked down in front, but Teravainen was there to smack in the puck for his 20th goal of the season. Teravainen joins Jeff Skinner (20) and Aho (24) in the Canes' 20-goal club through 69 games this season.

Aho and Teravainen have combined for 25 points (12g, 13a) in their last 15 games, and the two are at the top of this season's team scoring stats.
Five
Rask's power-play tally in the third period breathed new life into the Hurricanes. It was a quick shot, a bomb from the point, that pinged off the iron and into the net. From there, it seemed as if the Hurricanes would be able to build some momentum, but Vesey's second of the game, which would be the game-winner, smothered that.

"I thought it was coming," Peters said. "Tied it up on the power play, 3-3, and I thought we were in good shape there."
"I was trying to get a shot off. Luckily it went in," Rask said. "It's tough to lose one of these games, but we've just got to reboot and go for it tomorrow."
In the second period, the Hurricanes tied the game at two off a textbook play of going to the net and locating rebounds. Off an offensive zone faceoff win, Jeff Skinner curled with the puck to the middle of the ice and let a shot go from between the tops of the circles. Stempniak was parked alongside the net to clean up the rebound for his first goal since Jan. 14.

"Skinny gets shots through," Stempniak said. "Once he had some space I tried going to the net, and the rebound came right to me."
Up Next
The Hurricanes will host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night in Raleigh to close out the team's 15th back-to-back set of the season.
"We've got to put this one behind us and come ready tomorrow against a very good Boston team," Stempniak said. "Start getting wins and start collecting points. Give ourselves a shot as the season winds down."