Hurricanes Rally in the Third Period to Stay Alive with Game Five Comeback Win
The Carolina Hurricanes resumed their Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, having staved off elimination in Game Four with an exciting 4-3 victory. After losing on the road in Game Four, where their seven-game winning streak to start the postseason came to an end, the Rangers went into Game Five hoping to wrap up the series at home. Igor Shesterkin, the goalkeeper for the Rangers, was looking to bounce back going into tonight's game after giving up four goals in his previous appearance. This halted a run of 30 straight playoff starts in which he allowed three goals or fewer, second only to former Kings goalie Jonathan Quick in that category. The Rangers would take an early lead in Game Five and seemed to be in complete control of the game for the first two periods. However, the Hurricanes would avoid elimination yet again, defeating the Rangers 4-1 in Game Five thanks to four straight goals scored in the third period.
In the first period, both teams’ offenses would create many scoring opportunities in the opening frame, with the Hurricanes holding a slim advantage in shots on goal at 10-9. With both goalies playing well in the opening 20 minutes of play, the game would, however, stay scoreless going into the second. About five minutes into the second period, Jack Roslovic was given a tripping penalty, which resulted in the Rangers going on the penalty kill. The Rangers, despite being short-handed, would take the lead during the penalty kill at 6:23 of the period when Jacob Trouba blocked Sebastian Aho of the Hurricanes on a one-timer, setting up a two-on-one rush for New York and beating goalie Frederik Andersen between his blocker and pad to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Hurricanes would see their second-period struggles in the postseason continue, as they had a minus-six goal differential in the middle frame going into the game and entered the third period trailing 1-0.
To begin the third period, at 3:33, the Hurricanes would tie the game at 1-1 after Jordan Staal received a pass from Dmitry Orlov after coming onto the ice off the bench and wrapped the puck near the top of the crease past Shesterkin's leg and into the net for his first goal of the postseason. Nearly three minutes later at 6:39, the Hurricanes would take their first lead of the game at 2-1 after Brady Skjei’s slap-shot bounced off Shesterkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov would be there to bury the puck into the wide-open net for his 33rd career postseason goal. Midway through the period, at 9:56, the Hurricanes would score their third straight unanswered goal to take a 3-1 lead after Jack Drury would backhand the puck from behind the net to out in front, where Jordan Martinook would be there to wrist-shot the puck past Shesterkin for the goal to stun the Rangers’ crowd. The Rangers would pull Shesterkin for the extra-attacker with four minutes left. However, with 3:29 left in regulation, Hurricanes’ Martin Necas slap-shot the puck from their zone and into the empty net to seal the Hurricanes’ 4-1 victory to force a Game Six back in Carolina on Thursday night.
