Recap: Panarin, Trocheck Power Rangers to 4–2 Win in Carolina

The New York Rangers celebrated Thanksgiving Eve with a Metropolitan Division showdown on the road with the Carolina Hurricanes. It was certainly Miller time for both sides as the Rangers got their Captain back in J.T. Miller, who was a game time decision ahead of tonight’s action. On Carolina’s side of things, K’Andre Miller—who missed the Hurricanes last outing in New York—would take on his old team for the first time in his career. Will Borgen—who was a game time decision along with Miller—would remain out of the lineup resulting in no changes to the Rangers blueline from the last few games. 

First Period

It was a fascinating start to this game as the Rangers appeared to be playing with some tenacity and were spending a good amount of time in Carolina’s end of the ice. Problem was—and stop me if you’ve heard this before—it took the Rangers eight minutes to finally register a shot on goal. To make it even more insane, Adam Fox had at least two attempts prior to that with one hitting the crossbar and an earlier shot being caught by the glove of Fredrik Anderson. However, because the shot would have gone wide, it wasn’t credited as a shot on goal. Can’t make this stuff up. 

In other news, the officials weren’t doing the Rangers any favors. 

Shortly after Taylor Raddysh finally put a puck on net, the Rangers were called for the first penalty of the game as Artemi Panarin was sent off for tripping. The penalty kill units did a good job of fighting off the advantage with Mika Zibanejad coming up big with a shot block that broke his stick in half. 

After a stretch of pretty low event hockey, the Rangers third line with some help from Matthew Robertson, led an effective shift in the offensive zone that ended with the Rangers on the board. Robertson did a great job of dictating play from the point, eventually bringing the puck towards the net. Taylor Raddysh was able to pick it up in the corner and moved it up to Noah Laba who let an absolute missile of a wrist shot go to beat Anderson on the blocker side. 1-0 Rangers. 

With just over two minutes to go in the period, Zibanejad was tripped up at the top of the face-off circle in Carolina’s end of the ice to give the Rangers their first power play of the night. The Rangers went back to their tried and true top power play with Miller back which proved to be a bit of a mistake as they weren’t able to generate much of anything. 

By the time the teams returned to even strength, there wasn’t much time remaining. The Rangers would take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission despite being out-shot 13-4 through twenty minutes of play. To add some context to the lack of shots for the Rangers, Carolina blocked six and were out-chanced by the Rangers 8-7. 5-2 in the high danger count. 

Second Period

Through five minutes of play in the second, the Rangers third line continued to stand out as Brett Berard nearly extended the Rangers lead on a great drive to the net. However, as Anderson froze the puck, Laba went a little too hard to the net which resulted in him being sent to the box for slashing. 

It took Carolina just six seconds to convert on the power play as a perfect passing play off the draw between Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov set up Shayne Gostisbehere for a one timer that found the back of the net, tying the game up 1-1. 

Not long after the goal, the Rangers were sent back to the penalty kill as Zibanejad was also called for tripping. The Rangers would have better luck this time around as they were able to kill off the penalty but it wasn’t long before they were tasked with yet another one to fight off. 

Right after the midway point of the period, Berard caught Sean Walker in a vulnerable position as he was sprinting to try and beat an icing call. It was a bit of an awkward play as Walker kicked one leg out, whether that was to slow himself down or attempt to throw Berard off, either way Berard came crashing into him which sent him off for boarding. No harm associated with that foul as the Rangers killed it off. 

It was another rough night for Vladislav Gavrikov in a physical sense as he took a hard shot from Gostisbehere off the knee which left him extremely slow to get up. That was his third block of the night. 

The Rangers managed to generate some offense in the final two minutes of the period as J.T. Miller fed Vincent Trocheck on an odd-man rush but didn’t have enough room to get it to go. However, on the following shift, a face-off win from Trocheck brought the puck back to Fox who sent it quickly over to Panarin for a one timer at the doorstep that found the back of the net. 2-1 Rangers with 64 seconds left in the second. 

A pretty good period considering the Rangers were at a disadvantage for over a quarter of it. They gave up the one power play goal but were able to regain the lead with a nice passing play off the draw that found Panarin down low. Shots after forty were now 24-13 Carolina who now had the edge in scoring chances with high danger chances tied at eight apiece. 

Third Period

The Rangers got off to a great start in the third as it took them 45 seconds to extend their lead. A steady zone entry from Panarin created a perfect pass to Trocheck in the slot. A quick slap shot sailed right over the glove of Anderson to make it a 3-1 game. 

The Rangers weren't necessarily sitting back after establishing the two goal lead but were beginning to spend more time in their own end of the ice. With about nine minutes to go, Seth Jarvis ended up with the puck all alone down low and fired a shot through a tiny window of net Shesterkin wasn't able to take away. 3-2 game.

The Rangers weathered the storm for the remainder of the period and with two minutes to go, the Hurricanes pulled Anderson for the extra attacker following a Rangers icing. Zibanejad won the following face-off which caused Adam Fox to come within inches of picking up the empty net goal from about as far as you can be at the other end of the ice.

Not long after, a brilliant hit from Zibanejad allowed for Will Cuylle to clear the puck, sending it into the empty net from the far blue line. Now leading 4-2, the Rangers were called for another penalty as Miller was sent off for roughing with 67 seconds to go. Carolina would have a 6-on-4 which kept Shesterkin and the Rangers penalty killers busy as time expired, giving the Rangers a huge win before the holiday.

An outstanding team effort from the Rangers as they got contributions up and down to the lineup, picking up an important pair of points in the process. Final shots on goal tally rang in 37-18 in Carolina's favor. Shesterkin came up with some huge saves throughout the night and stood tall during that final flurry to help his team secure the win.

The Rangers are right back at it for a Thanksgiving Showdown with the Boston Bruins Friday afternoon before heading home to host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!