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Rangers vs Hurricanes: Henrik Lundqvist’s 45 Saves Gives New York Second Straight Win

The New York Rangers have now won two games in a row after defeating the Carolina Hurricanes by a final score of 4-2 this evening. Henrik Lundqvist got the nod in goal for the second straight night, and boy, did he answer the call. Lundqvist’s 45 saves on the night kept the Rangers afloat early on in the game, and gave them a chance to answer at the other end of the ice.

1st Period

Artemiy Panarin (8) - Ryan Strome (9) & Jesper Fast (5) - 19:32 1st Period

The Rangers probably didn’t deserve to be leading at the end of the first period, but the miraculous play of Henrik Lundqvist gave them that opportunity. With under 30 seconds remaining in the period, a quick reversal play between Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast created enough confusion in front of the Hurricanes’ net. Strome quickly fed a pass out to Artemiy Panarin, who was cutting to the net all alone and Panarin tapped home his eighth of the year.

2nd Period

Dougie Hamilton (7) - Jaccob Slavin (9) & Teuvo Teravainen (9) - 14:32 2nd Period

New York’s string of good luck finally came to an end late in the second period as Carolina finally tied the game up at 1-1. Dougie Hamilton was able to find some open ice in the right faceoff circle and deflected Jaccob Slavin’s shot as it came in on net. The direction of the puck didn’t change a whole lot but it was enough to fool Henrik Lundqvist, and beat him just under the crossbar.

Brendan Lemieux (1) PPG - Tony DeAngelo (7) & Pavel Buchnevich (9) - 18:04 2nd Period

Despite still not playing all that great during the middle frame, the Rangers took their second lead of the evening shortly after Carolina tied the game. After some nice puck movement by the Rangers’ second power play unit, a point shot by Tony DeAngelo ticked off of Brendan Lemieux’s stick in front and deflection in behind Petr Mrazek.

3rd Period

Pavel Buchnevich (3) - Unassisted - 1:15 3rd Period

The Rangers were able to carry over the late momentum gained from Brendan Lemieux’s power play goal, and quickly doubled up their lead just 1:15 into the third period. Pavel Buchnevich created the entire sequence with a great steal from Jake Gardiner and powered his way to the front of the net. With Jaccob Slavin taking away the passing option to Filip Chytil, Buchnevich continued to the crease and slipped the puck around Mrazek on the far side.

Sebastian Aho (6) - Ryan Dzingel (8) & Martin Necas (7) - 15:58 3rd Period

With the Rangers falling back into prevent defense while protecting their two-goal lead, some friendly fire brought the Hurricanes back within a goal. Sebastian Aho’s attempted centering pass wound up deflecting off of Lias Andersson’s stick and slipped through Henrik Lundqvist’s legs. It was an unfortunate bounce to give up, but the Rangers didn’t let that goal affect their game.

Adam Fox (2) ENG - Artemiy Panarin (9) - 18:35 3rd Period

Carolina pulled their goaltender with under two minutes remaining in regulation, and despite numerous opportunities, the Rangers found a way to close this one out. Kaapo Kakko didn’t pick up an assist on Adam Fox’s empty netter, but he did all of the hard work in the corner to make sure it happened. Adam Fox scoring the clincher in Carolina was a nice finishing touch to this game.

After sweeping the back-to-back series with Detroit and Carolina, the Rangers will have two much needed rest days before returning to action on Sunday afternoon against the Florida Panthers.

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