It took the Hurricanes a shift to settle into the first period, but after that they controlled the pace of play and took a 1-0 lead into the intermission thanks to 2016 second-round draft choice Janne Kuokkanen's goal. From his own end, Kuokkanen skated untouched through the neutral zone, cut back to the middle of the ice at the top of the faceoff circles and fired a top-shelf snipe past Brandon Halverson.
"It's a big win for us," Kuokkanen said. "It's going to give us a lot of extra boost."
"I think there were a lot of nerves initially even though it's preseason. A lot of guys just wanted to skate hard," Samuelsson said. "The pace was high. The pace of the game surprised me a little bit in how good it was."
The Rangers pushed back in the second period, and Alex Nedeljkovic was challenged early. New York broke through and tied the game at one when college free agent signee Jimmy Vesey tipped in a shot from the point. That lead was short-lived, as Haydn Fleury's shot squeaked through Halverson and put the Canes back on top by a goal.
A tough five-minute span later in the period kept the Rangers in this one. Goals from Robin Kovacs, via a giveaway in the Canes' own end, and Dylan Di Perna gave New York its first and only lead of the contest. The Canes would answer back before the end of the period, with Lucas Wallmark darting through the middle in between two defenders and scoring five-hole.
"You've got to give the Rangers credit. They came out real hard in the second and were really firm on the 50-50 battles," Samuelsson said. "It took us a few minutes to get going, but we responded well as a team. Kept it nice and calm on the bench, and the guys were confident and worked their way out of it."
