Igor Shesterkin was brilliant again, but even another superb performance by the New York Rangers No. 1 goalie wasn’t enough to keep the Carolina Hurricanes from leaving Madison Square Garden with a 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.
The Rangers started fast – Jimmy Vesey scored 17 seconds into the game, and they had a couple of other good chances against Pyotr Kochetkov in the next couple of minutes. But Carolina’s shoot-first, push-the-pace style slowly began to dominate play. The Hurricanes allowed just one more shot on goal in the opening period after New York had four in the first 2:08, and the puck spent most of the rest of the first 40 minutes in the Rangers zone.
Shesterkin made 28 saves and was fabulous again, just as he was Friday night in New York’s 3-1 road win against the Dallas Stars. But the Rangers looked like a tired team as the game went on, and the Hurricanes finally got a couple of pucks past him in the second period to take the lead on goals scored by William Carrier and ex-Ranger Jack Roslovic.
The Rangers had some terrific chances early in the third period, but Kochetkov was up to the challenge before Sebastian Aho’s empty-netter put the game away, and the Hurricanes ended an 0-4-1 slide on the road…