The Carolina Hurricanes were defeated by the New York Rangers 4-2 at Lenovo Center on Wednesday. Despite strong performances from Sebastian Aho and Shayne Gostisbehere, the Hurricanes could not overcome a solid effort from Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who made 36 saves on 38 shots.
Carolina dominated early in the game with a 13-4 shot advantage in the first period, but it was New York that took the lead after Noah Laba scored late in the opening frame. In the second period, Shayne Gostisbehere tied the game for Carolina with a power-play goal. However, two quick goals by the Rangers before and after the second intermission gave them a lead they would not relinquish.
Seth Jarvis brought Carolina within one goal midway through the third period, but an empty-net goal by Will Cuylle sealed the win for New York. Frederik Andersen stopped 14 of 17 shots for Carolina in his 13th start of the season.
Sebastian Aho played his 700th career game with Carolina, becoming only the fifth player to reach this milestone entirely with the team since its relocation. He registered two assists during this game and now has 654 points (291 goals and 363 assists) over his career with Carolina. Only Ron Francis has more points among franchise players through their first 700 games.
Shayne Gostisbehere continued his productive streak by scoring for a second consecutive contest and adding an assist, bringing his total to 16 points in 13 games this season. He is one of four NHL defensemen currently averaging at least one point per game (minimum ten games played). With his power-play goal, Carolina has now scored on the man advantage in three straight games for the first time this season.
Nikolaj Ehlers assisted on Gostisbehere’s goal, tying him with Frans Nielsen for most assists by a Danish player in NHL history at 306. Seth Jarvis scored his team-leading twelfth goal of this campaign; he has collected points in three of his last four games and matched his personal best point total through Carolina’s first twenty-three games.
Afterward, head coach Rod Brind’Amour commented: “We played really well. We played hard. We made a couple of mistakes. The D-zone coverage with a minute to go (in the second period), we blew the coverage. We can’t do that against that line. We took a little breather (on their third goal). One on three, we just kind of back in, and then all of a sudden, you’re giving the best players time, and that’s not what we do. It ended up in the net, and that’s kind of the game, right? We couldn’t outscore the couple of mistakes we made…. Clearly, we needed to score on some of our chances. You can’t have that many opportunities and not come away with more than what we did.”
Sebastian Aho said: “Hard-fought game. Two good teams going at it. Both teams had their looks, and obviously, they were able to squeeze a win here. The effort was definitely better than last game for us. A couple errors here and there, it cost us. The way we played was a step in the right direction.”
Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller added: “The puck’s just not going in the net. We’re getting our chances, we’re getting shots, we’re creating looks. Obviously they have a pretty good goalie over there who made some pretty good saves… We’re getting our looks… I think we’re going to have to figure out ways to work for our chances and keep finding ways to put puck in back of net.”
Brind’Amour also reflected: “In this stretch of games, we had one poor game… Unfortunately we haven’t really gotten what we probably deserved points-wise… It’s always going to be about details… You can have ten good shifts but that one you let up that’s going to cost you… We were in one tonight without Jordo—that’s big loss for us—it sets our team up differently but you’ve got injuries you’ve got deal with them.”
The Hurricanes will practice Thursday before hosting Winnipeg Jets Friday at Lenovo Center.
