New York Rangers easily swipe the action plan of the Hurricanes from the competition

The New York Rangers have advanced to the Eastern playoffs.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The New York Rangers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 in the deciding Game 7 of their second-round playoff series on Monday night. Chris Kreider scored twice, and Igor Shesterkin was outstanding in goal for the Rangers. This victory ruined the Hurricanes’ unbeaten postseason record at home.

Shesterkin, who was a contender for the Vezina Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s best goaltender, as well as the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s most valuable player, ended with 36 saves and carried the shutout far into the third period. This includes a one-stop on Sebastian Aho as he was lying on his back close to the right post. Towards the end of the first period, Shesterkin managed to capture the puck while swinging his legs as if he were attempting to construct a snow angel.

The Rangers took an early lead thanks to goals scored by Kreider and Adam Fox during the first period’s man-advantage situations. The Rangers were subsequently able to win a fifth consecutive game that eliminated them from the playoffs thanks to Shesterkin’s most recent effort of stifling the opposition’s offensive. In what became an unanticipated blowout, Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil also scored, while Andrew Copp added a late empty-netter to the scoreboard.

It has been three years since the last time New York Rangers made it to the Eastern Conference finals, and they will now face the team that has won the Stanley Cup a record two times in a row: Tampa Bay. On Wednesday evening, the first game of that series will take place in New York.

The Hurricanes’ play

The Hurricanes’ play suffered as they were forced to play without starting goalkeeper Antti Raanta and top-line rookie forward Seth Jarvis due to injuries. In the first period, Jarvis had a hard blow to the head, and in the second period, Raanta went down with a lower-body injury while reaching out his right leg for a stop. Jarvis’s injury was more severe. Both players did not come back to the game.

Prior to his injury, Raanta had recorded 16 saves, but rookie Pyotr Kochetkov was unable to prevent any goals despite facing 12 shots. Even more amazing is the fact that the Rangers were able to pull off this victory at a venue that the Hurricanes had previously dominated in the postseason, going 7-0 there, including winning the first three games of this series.

On Sunday, the head coach of the New York Rangers, Gerard Gallant, said that he has a bunch of players that “have a lot of fun” and “believe in themselves.” They finished off their comeback victory from a multi-game deficit on Monday looking like they were doing a lot of each of those things, which was their second consecutive win.

First, they defeated Pittsburgh in a first-round series that went seven games despite trailing the series 3-1 at one point. Then, after falling down 0-2 in this series, New York rebounded with more resiliency to make it all the way to the Eastern finals. Tony DeAngelo was ultimately victorious against Shesterkin in the middle of the third quarter. And as if to foreshadow the nature of the evening, the Rangers quickly responded with a goal from Chytil only forty seconds later, increasing their lead to 5-1. Additionally, a late goal was scored by Max Domi for the Hurricanes. In addition to the Rangers capitalizing on those early chances with the man advantage to take a fast 2-0 lead, the Hurricanes had a terrible night overall, and the Rangers’ goal production for the first three games in Raleigh was equaled by that total.

NO FIRSTS

Since moving to North Carolina in 1997 from Hartford, where they had played before as the Whalers, the Hurricanes have a perfect record of 6-0 in Game 7s. They were going for the record of becoming the first club in NHL history to win seven consecutive Game 7s in a row. In addition to that, Carolina was attempting to make history by becoming the first team to win three best-of-seven series in the same playoffs while not winning a single game away from home.

ELIMINATION-GAME PRODUCTION

Fox reached the 10-point plateau in this postseason’s elimination games when he scored and assisted on Kreider’s opening goal.

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