The New York Rangers are on a hot streak this playoff season. The Broadway Blueshirts have taken home their fifth straight win after defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Sunday afternoon. This series has already been a showcase of top competition between the highest-ranking teams in the Metro Division, and there are still more games to go between them.
What gave the Rangers the edge in Game 1, and what should we look forward to in Game 2 Tuesday night?
Mika Magic In Game 1
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While March has been associated with the star player, May is also the month of Mika Zibanejad. He contributed to two of the four goals scored by the Rangers to set them ahead of the Hurricanes, both of which came in the first period. Being on hat trick watch right off the bat just set the stage for how powerful the Blueshirts were going to be in Game 1.
The first goal of Zibanejad’s came just two minutes into the game, scoring an even-strength goal off a pass from winger Jack Roslovic, who has also been stellar during the Rangers’ playoff appearance this season. While Zibanejad got the team’s momentum going by striking first, the Carolina Hurricanes knew how to strike back. A little over a minute later, Jaccob Slavin made it 1-1 with a shot from the blue line.
Halfway through the first period, Zibanejad worked his Mika Magic on the power play. At 10:05, he scored one of his famous one-timers after a solid no-look backhand feed from his other linemate Chris Kreider.
Zibanejad has been an outstanding player on this New York Rangers team for the longest time now, and his presence has certainly not gone unnoticed during the playoffs. Whether it’s scoring goals or setting up shots, the Rangers can count on Zibanejad to make crucial plays or finish them off.
After Game 1, he now has three goals and seven assists in five playoff games played so far this season.
Special Team Showcase
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One of the keys to Game 1 was to keep an eye on the special teams for both sides of the matchup. However, like the previous series, we saw a complete dominance of the New York Rangers specialty teams over the Carolina Hurricanes, who put up tough competition in the regular season by finishing first in the league in PK percentage and second in PP percentage.
The Carolina Hurricanes went 0 for 5 on the power play, and 0 for 2 on the penalty kill. That is definitely not a reflection of the dominating specialty team units we saw from Carolina in the regular season. While the Canes rallied the Rangers during Game 1, all of their goals came at even strength.
Canes captain Jordan Staal commented on the lack of performance from their special teams, saying, “It’s clear our start and our special teams were the difference tonight, and we’ve always talked about that all year long…You win that battle you have a really good chance of winning, and we didn’t tonight. Both of them weren’t good enough, obviously.”
As for the Rangers, they went 2 for 2 on the power play, with Mika Zibanejad scoring the first PPG and Vincent Trocheck extending the Blueshirts’ lead to 3-1 after scoring a power play goal in front of the net with less than four minutes left to play in the first period. Trocheck’s goal was assisted by Zibanejad.
Canes Causing Chaos
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While the Carolina specialty team units faltered, their even strength play put up some tough competition for the New York Rangers in Game 1. After the response to Mika Zibanejad’s opening goal in the first period, the Rangers knew they were going to be facing off against a team of much higher caliber than they did in the first round. No time to get comfortable now.
After the Rangers were leading 3-1 throughout the majority of Game 1, Martin Necas cut the lead early in the third period to 3-2. This was now a one-goal game, and the Hurricanes showed no signs of slowing down.
Artemi Panarin scored at 8:21 to extend the lead to two goals once again, but the real threat came once the Carolina net was empty. The Canes managed to score the final goal of the game at 6-on-5 after pulling goalie Frederik Andersen in the waning moments of the third period. this goal was scored by Seth Jarvis. The fear of overtime was quite present in the Madison Square Garden crowd.
Nevertheless, the Rangers defense and star goaltender Igor Shesterkin made sure no more Carolina pucks got to the net, and the final score remained at 4-3 and a Rangers victory in Game 1.
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About the Author
River Caraballo (she/they) is a hockey writer for Total Apex Sports. Despite being based in Connecticut, she is a big fan of the New York Rangers and the Minnesota Wild. They host a weekly podcast and radio show, Round the Rink, where they discuss hockey from the NHL to the PWHL and college hockey. You can follow River on Twitter/X to keep up with her sports content.
