Recap: Rangers Shutout for Fourth Time on Home Ice, Fall 3-0 to Hurricanes

Back on home ice and more excitingly, back on Eastern Standard Time, the New York Rangers hosted the Carolina Hurricanes for their first meeting of the season. Riding their longest win streak in over a calendar year, the Rangers looked to keep things going with hopes of finally securing a win on home ice this season. Despite a strong start, the Rangers would lose momentum and be shutout on home ice yet again this season.

The lone change to the lineup tonight came from Matthew Robertson coming in for the day-to-day Urho Vaakanainen. Additionally, stick taps to Braden Schneider who was playing in his 300th career game tonight. 

First Period

The Rangers did a good job of keeping Carolina goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov busy in the early parts of the opening period as they collected nine shots on goal within the first seven minutes of play. A wise strategy seeing as this was Kochetkov’s first start of the season. 

The top line had a great chance off the rush with J.T. Miller set up nicely at the doorstep but no chance was better than that of Artemi Panarin. Panarin ended up all alone with the puck in front of Kochetkov with plenty of time and space to make something happen. Opting for the shot, Kochetkov was able to get a blocker on it to keep Panarin’s scoreless drought intact.  

From there, the Rangers were able to generate some consistent offensive zone pressure which resulted in Jusso Parssinen drawing the first penalty of the game, sending Mark Jankowski off for holding. The top power play unit was off to a great start, moving the puck really well which resulted in some quality chances but were unable to convert across the two minute advantage. 

With seven minutes to go, the Hurricanes got their first chance at the power play as Vladislav Gavrikov was called for slashing Seth Jarvis. Not a terrible penalty to take seeing as the alternative would have resulted in Jarvis likely having a breakaway. Of course that would come to haunt the Rangers as Nikolaj Ehlers, who hadn’t scored at all this season yet, let a shot go from the point that sailed through traffic, hit the post and of course, found its way in for his first as a Hurricane. 1-0 Carolina. 

On the following shift, the Rangers were sent back to the penalty kill as Noah Laba was called for an extremely weak hooking call. Thankfully, the Rangers did a much better job of killing this one off as they were able to come out of it unscathed. However, the goal along with the pair of penalties did seem to take a bit of the wind out of the Rangers sails as the closing minutes came and went with the Rangers still trailing 1-0 heading into the first intermission. 

It was a tale of two periods as the Rangers had 13 shots on goal within the first nine minutes of play but went on to only put the puck on net twice from that point on. An eventful period as the Rangers had the slight edge in shots on goals 15-14 with both teams credited with four high danger chances. The Rangers were getting worked in the face-off circle but prior to the penalties, were borderline dominating play. Finding a way to get back to that style of play in the second would be pivotal.

Second Period

The Rangers got a second chance with the man advantage just a minute into the period as the Hurricanes were called for a too-many men infraction. Once again, the top power play got off to a great start and the Rangers continued to generate opportunities, registering six shots on goal throughout the man advantage but came out of it empty handed. The power play remains a bit of a concern for this Rangers team.

Upon returning to even strength, the Hurricanes hemmed the Rangers in their own zone, keeping the fourth line out there for a two minute shift. During and after which, Shesterkin bailed his team out on a few occasions, getting some help from a post as a shot from Logan Stankoven hit the bar and went out of play just about five minutes into the second period. 

The next ten minutes were pretty low event as the overall pace of play stayed the course without many serious offensive stretches. Alexis Lafrenière saw the best chance during this stretch as Noah Laba set him up right in front of the net but couldn’t get enough on it to convert. 

With six and a half to go, the Rangers were back to the power play as Charles Alexis Legault was called for holding. Unfortunately for the Rangers, third time would not be the charm as they continued to struggle, this time being held without a shot on goal for the entirety of the two minute advantage. 

With about three minutes to go, following a defensive zone face-off loss, a shot from Sean Walker sailed right to the back of the net with such speed that there was some confusion as to whether it actually went in or not. Sure enough, the goal would stand and the Rangers would now trail by two. To make matters worse, they would close the period out on the penalty kill as Miller was called for hooking with less than two minutes to go. 

The Rangers would hold Carolina off to close out the period but were down 2-0 being out-shot 25-24 after forty minutes of play. As Darren Pang mentioned on the broadcast, not a ton of life in the building from the fans and players alike. After killing off the last of the Miller penalty, the Rangers desperately needed to find a way to generate some momentum if they wanted to flip the script here. 

Third Period

Despite holding the Canes off for the remaining seconds on the carryover penalty, the Rangers were quickly running out of time as limited play stoppages resulted in the midway point of the period coming around awfully quick. The Rangers were held shotless through the first ten minutes of play. The most infuriating part of it was there were still moments where they had the chance to shoot the puck but were second guessing, looking to make a pass instead of putting the puck on net.

Fans thought the goal scoring drought on home ice was bad, we were now entering a shots on goal drought as the Rangers were over twenty minutes without a shot on goal in this game. That would finally be snapped with less than seven minutes to go on a dump in from Sam Carrick that just happened to reach Kochetkov in the blue paint. The Rangers would follow that up with back-to-back icings.

With about three and a half to go, Braden Schneider woke up the Garden crowd if only for a moment as he laid a massive hit on Taylor Hall that knocked his helmet off, forcing him to head to the bench.

With less than three minutes to go the Rangers pulled Igor Shesterkin for the extra attacker. After about 45 seconds of maintaining the offensive zone, the Rangers got a whistle and utilized their timeout. Stop me if you heard this before, but the Rangers failed to generate anything at 6-on-5 and Seth Jarvis soon took the puck in all alone on the empty net to seal the deal 3-0.

Just a brutal blunder for the Rangers who got off to a strong start but quickly fell victim to Carolina's typical shutdown style of play. The Rangers are back at it Friday Night on home ice as they'll host the Detroit Red Wings in the first half of a back-to-back.