3 Keys: Hurricanes at Rangers, Game 5 of Eastern 2nd Round

(2M) Hurricanes at (1M) Rangers

Eastern Conference Second Round, Game 5

New York leads best-of-7 series 3-1

7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC

NEW YORK -- The Carolina Hurricanes will try build on a season-saving win in Game 4 and once again stave off elimination in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

The Hurricanes won 4-3 in Game 4 at home Saturday to avoid being swept in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season. They were eliminated in four games by the Florida Panthers in the conference final last season.

Brady Skjei broke the tie by scoring at 16:49 of the third period, giving Carolina its first power-play goal of the series; it was previously 0-for-16 and probably pressing since the Hurricanes knew their lack of offense with the man-advantage was the difference in the first three games.

"It's still the same situation, obviously, but being uptight is never a good thing either and we want to build on what we did last game," Carolina center Jordan Staal said. "Backs against the wall, try to find a way to get a win."

The Rangers, who had a seven-game winning streak to start the playoffs end Saturday, are 4-0 at home this postseason, outscoring the opposition 16-10 and scoring four goals in each of the four games. The Hurricanes haven't scored four goals in a game in the series.

New York has won six straight at home since April 13.

"It's important to understand, because honestly the questions have been asked and the way it's been talked about, this series, going up 3-0, I think people forget it's the Carolina Hurricanes we're playing against," Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. "We knew this wasn't going to be easy. We know it's not going to be any easier tonight.

“You don't want to lose any games, but at the same time we go down there and split, we get a chance to advance tonight with a win. That's all you can ask for even after a loss, that you still get a chance to finish the series and do it at home. That's great."

This is the eighth time in the playoffs this year a team facing elimination has gone into a must-win road game; only two of the previous seven times has the team facing elimination stayed alive.

Only four times in NHL history has a team come back from down 3-0 to win a best-of-7 playoff series. The team leading 3-0 has gone on to win the series 98.1 percent of the time (205-4).

The Hurricanes are 4-5 under coach Rod Brind'Amour when facing elimination.

Here are 3 keys to Game 5:

1. Who is in goal for the Hurricanes?

All indications are Frederik Andersen will be Carolina’s starting goalie for the second straight game. He was in the crease typically reserved for the starting goalie at the morning skate Monday. Usually the starter leaves the ice first and the backup stays on longer, and Andersen was the first goalie off the ice.

Brind'Amour was noncommittal when asked if Andersen will start.

"Maybe," he said.

Andersen stopped 22 of 25 shots in a Game 4 after Pyotr Kochetkov played Game 3 and did the same in a 3-2 overtime loss. Andersen started the first two games of the series and allowed eight goals on 62 shots.

Andersen and Kochetkov alternated starts down the stretch during the regular season.

"We know we had a good rotation; do we go back to that just based on when we had our most success?" Brind'Amour said. "There's been a lot of discussions."

When his team is facing elimination in the playoffs, Andersen is 4-7 with an .898 save percentage.

2. Better start for Rangers, tighter coverage in defensive zone

The desperate team again will be the Hurricanes. The Rangers again will have to match it at the start of the game. They did not handle that well in Game 4 largely because of missed assignments and mistakes that resulted in goals against.

Carolina scored in the first period Saturday off a turnover by Barclay Goodrow (Evgeny Kuznetsov's goal at 1:51), a turnover by Jacob Trouba (Stefan Noesen's goal at 6:33), and Artemi Panarin's failure to stay with Sebastian Aho in the slot (Aho's goal at 15:29).

The start will be important for New York because an early lead will keep the crowd engaged, the energy in the building high, but it needs to be disciplined with its defensive assignments and smart and simple with the puck in order to have a good start.

"We have to be on the attack," Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said. "We can't be waiting for them and then match it. We have to be right from the get-go attacking them, not on our heels. That will be a huge key for tonight. Right at puck drop, we have to make sure the starting five are ready to roll and then shift after shift we have to keep rolling them over and taking it to them."

3. Win the special teams

The team that has won the special teams battle has won every game in this series.

The Rangers outscored the Hurricanes 4-0 on special teams through the first three games. Carolina finally broke a power-play slump with Skjei's goal in Game 4 to win the special teams battle and, of course, the game.

New York is 0-for-5 on the power play in the past two games, including 0-for-1 in Game 4, but Chris Kreider's short-handed goal in Game 3 was the difference in the special teams battle.

"Those are crucial times of the game for both teams," Brind'Amour said. "Obviously that's been kind of this series, it keeps getting boiled down to that because the two teams are pretty evenly matched, I think."

Hurricanes projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Sebastian Aho -- Andrei Svechnikov

Jordan Martinook -- Jack Drury -- Martin Necas

Teuvo Teravainen -- Jordan Staal -- Seth Jarvis

Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Stefan Noesen

Jaccob Slavin -- Brent Burns

Brady Skjei -- Tony DeAngelo

Dmitry Orlov -- Jalen Chatfield

Frederik Andersen

Pyotr Kochetkov

Scratched: Jackson Blake, Brendan Lemieux, Maxime Comtois, Scott Morrow, Bradly Nadeau, Spencer Martin, Dylan Coghlan, Ryan Suzuki, Ronan Seeley

Injured: Jesper Fast (upper body), Brett Pesce (lower body)

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Jack Roslovic

Artemi Panarin -- Vincent Trocheck -- Alexis Lafreniere

Will Cuylle -- Alexander Wennberg -- Kaapo Kakko

Jimmy Vesey -- Barclay Goodrow -- Jonny Brodzinski

Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox

K'Andre Miller -- Braden Schneider

Erik Gustafsson -- Jacob Trouba

Igor Shesterkin

Jonathan Quick

Scratched: Zac Jones, Chad Ruhwedel, Louis Domingue, Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe

Injured: Blake Wheeler (lower body), Filip Chytil (illness)

Status report

Wheeler has been cleared for contact and the forward was in a regular jersey at the Rangers’ morning skate. Wheeler, who had been skating in a noncontact jersey, has not played since getting injured Feb. 15. … Chytil was on the ice for the morning skate after the forward missed Game 4 because of an illness. Rangers coach Peter Laviolette was noncommittal on the lineup, but it doesn't appear Chytil will play after the line rushes indicated there would be no changes.