The New York Rangers will be looking to keep their momentum going when they host the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Tuesday.
New York is now 5-0 to start the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs and are just the fourth Presidents’ Trophy winner to starty the postseason with five consecutive victories. They join the 1994 Rangers, who opened the postseason 7-0. The 1999 Dallas Stars (6-0) and the 2021 Colorado Avalanche (6-0) are the other teams.
In Game 1 on Sunday, Mika Zibanejad exploded in the first period with two goals and an assist to lead the way in a 4-3 Blueshirts victory. However, the real story of the game was special-teams play. The Rangers were perfect going 2-for-2 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
“I thought we played a pretty good game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour noted afterwards . “A couple of kills we didn’t quite execute right and they did. A couple of quick passes and they hit it … that was the difference.”
That being said, the Rangers are well aware of how good the Hurricanes can be, and will throw everything at Igor Shesterkin to even the series.
“They have been for the past five years a top team at putting the puck to the net,” coach Peter Laviolette explained . “From a 5-on-5 standpoint [in Game 1], I thought we did a really good job of generating the chances we needed to, and keeping them from generating the quality chances they might be looking for.”
Stopping the aggressive Hurricanes push will fall heavily on the Rangers defense. According to Money Puck , the pairing of Jacob Trouba and Erik Gustafsson has been one of the best at keeping the biscuit out of the basket this postseason.
“When you lose Game 1 you’re obviously going to come back and play with some desperation,” Trouba stated . “It’s up to us to not get complacent and to keep pushing … That’s the challenge ahead of us.”
Here’s today’s game and broadcast info:
New York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes (GAME 2) Date/Time: May 7, 2024 @ 7:00 PM ET Arena: Madison Square Garden TV: ESPN Radio: ESPN 98.7 FM Series: 1-0 NYR
This is the third time the Rangers have played the Hurricanes in the playoffs. They have a 1-1 series record, losing the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers and winning in the second round in 2022. This is just the second time the teams have played a best-of-7 series.
The Rangers are 12-3 in their past 15 home playoff games and 15-13 all-time in Game 2s at MSG. They also became just the sixth Presidents’ Trophy winner to sweep their first-round opponent.
Matt Rempe became the first Rangers’ player to score a goal in his NHL Playoffs debut since defenseman Matt Gilroy scored in Game 1 of the 2011 Conference Quarterfinals against the Capitals.
Including the regular-season and playoffs, when the Rangers score four or more goals in a game, they are 38-0-1.
Upcoming Rangers Milestones
The next Rangers playoff shutout will be the first since Henrik Lundqvist beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 on 4/12/17 (R1, G1).
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