The Carolina Hurricanes tied a franchise record for consecutive home losses after suffering a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday.
Not since a stretch from Dec. 2002-Jan. 2003 had the team gone winless at home for seven games.
Even while unleashing a season-high 49 shots on Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist, Carolina’s lone goal was provided by recent call-up, forward Zac Dalpe, who scored midway through the third period to break the Vezina Trophy winner’s shutout.
“I mean it feels okay, but we didn’t get the win,” Dalpe said of ending the team’s six period scoring drought.
“I thought we played pretty well, we battled pretty hard. The end result is not what we wanted.”
Energetic and physical
It was an energetic first period of play from both teams as the Hurricanes outshot the Rangers 14-12, and outhit them 13-11.
It was a very physical affair right from the start.
At even strength, the Hurricanes kept New York’s defensemen looking over their shoulders as their forecheck was aggressive and impactful.
“It seemed like it was a pretty high-pace first period,” Dalpe said.
“I know we kinda’ wanted to set ourselves up to take advantage of them because they played last night.”
Though the Rangers were playing the end of a back-to-back set of games, they didn’t show that they were worse for the wear.
It was Lundqvist who made several key saves that bought time for the Rangers to put the puck past Hurricanes goaltender Dan Ellis, who made 27 saves during two periods of play.
Slow start in second
It was another game in which the opening minutes of play during the second period, more or less dictated the outcome for the Hurricanes.
With Jiri Tlusty penalized for interference just 15 seconds into the period, the Rangers’ Derek Stepan scored the go-ahead goal on the power play.
Similar to recent games, Carolina barely had enough time to recover from that initial setback before Rick Nash picked the puck away from Ellis who got caught behind his net trying to set the puck up for his defenseman and found Rangers captain Ryan Callahan wide open in front.
As a result, Callahan deposited the puck into the empty net, and the Rangers led 2-0 with 17:29 still to play in the period.
All shots, barely any goals
Playing without forward Alexander Semin, the team’s second-leading scorer, who was out with an upper-body injury, the Hurricanes still managed to generate scoring opportunities but without producing adequate goal-scoring as a result.
It is a problem that has once again returned to plague the team’s play, and continue to deny them the opportunity to win games.
“Not much to say, really,” a quiet Jeff Skinner said after he completed the game taking eight shots on Lundqvist himself.
“Sorta’ seems like we’ve said everything that we can say. Just have to stick with it. We’ve been sayin’ it all along – ‘you gotta’ stick with it, you gotta’ believe that it’s gonna’ pay off.”
Special teams make the difference
Coming into the game with the NHL’s 22nd-best power play, the Rangers finished at 2-for-5 with the man-advantage while the Hurricanes’ power play unit went scoreless, a large reason of why they occupy the 27th spot in that category.
Leading 2-0, New York was afforded extra-man opportunity as defenseman Tim Gleason was sent to the penalty box for high sticking.
As a result, Nash beat Ellis from the high slot with a spin-around move after getting the pass from Mats Zuccarello on the point, and extended the Rangers lead to 3-0 with 8:41 to go in the second period.
It seemed that the energy level and consistency that the Hurricanes played with during the opening period did not return for any consistent period of time throughout the rest of the second period as New York outshot Carolina 18-14.
Breaking the shutout
Trailing 3-0, Justin Peters started in place of Dan Ellis in the Hurricanes net for the final period of play.
The Hurricanes started the period with much more pace in their stride and puck movement, and peppered Lundqvist with numerous shots throughout the entire period, outshooting the Rangers 21-9.
Carolina finally managed to get the puck past him - once.
Facing the risk of being shut out for two consecutive games, Dalpe finally beat Lundqvist high, over his glove hand at 9:27 in.
The play was set up after Hurricanes captain Eric Staal established possession in the Rangers zone along the boards to the left of Lundqvist.
Staal then slid the puck into the corner where Skinner found Dalpe streaking into the slot, and gave him the pass to set up the one-timer that beat the big Swedish goalkeeper.
Lundqvist completes domination
With less than 10 minutes to play, Carolina had another power play opportunity that resulted in more quality shot attempts on net, but Lundqvist and the Rangers continued to stop the puck from crossing the goal line.
New York's energy level was still high and the Rangers continued to work hard at both ends of the ice, challenging Peters when they could at even strength and on the power play while successfully killing of all penalties that they took.
They even managed to score the game’s final goal, an empty-netter from Brian Boyle who tapped the puck into the net with one second remaining.
Once again, all the Hurricanes and head coach Kirk Muller could do was point out that the effort was there, but the result they wanted wasn’t.
“If you get 49 shots on net, that’s a lot of rubber at the net for a team,” Muller said.
“You know, he (Lundqvist) came up with some big saves. I don’t know what more our guys can do. There were great scoring chances. We ask them to go to the net and get second and third rebounds. They did everything you’re supposed to do, but we were only able to beat him once.”
After watching this happen for seven straight games at home and with one win in the last 12 games, it may finally be time for a change in strategy.
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