Carolina leads the series 2-1
Rangers win Game 3 3-1
The entire Rangers team showed up for this game and it made the difference. Mika Zibanejad skated the rink the entire 60 minutes and made play after play. Igor let one sneak by him but he kept his composure and held that door shut for the rest of the game.
The Rangers were more aggressive in this game, the much-needed adjustment that I was happy to see. They were also able to take advantage of the mistakes Carolina made, which ultimately won the game. The Hurricanes got sloppy with penalties and it was Fox, Panarin, and Zibanejad who made them pay for it. A perfect cross-ice pass from Panarin to a wide-open Zibanejad for the rocket speed one-timer. The first goal of the game in the first period put the Rangers in the lead and this time, they never let go.
Chris Kreider got a beautiful goal thanks to Zibanejad making Tony DeAngelo’s life more difficult. DeAngelo moves around Mika to cross the crease so he can chase Kreider, but Mika jack-knifed DeAngelo’s stick from below, sending it into orbit, thus turning him into a flopping fish in front of Kreider. Seeing the opening, Kreider sent the puck across Raanta’s face mask and in. DeAngelo had some turnovers, missed shots, and generally bad ideas for the entire game so, by the final horn, he had regressed into a giant baby. As he does.
The biggest advantage Carolina had in this game was shots on goal (44 to the Rangers’ 33) but Igor was in the zone and kept them at bay. The mind-boggling statistic from this game: in the last 25 games, Carolina is just under 10% on the power play. It’s like 9 out of 93. That is complete garbage. If the Rangers can shake their bad stretch of power play performance from Games 1 and 2, Carolina is in serious trouble. If Carolina wins this series and they play Tampa, they have no chance of winning without fixing that. That’s junior varsity numbers.
There was a big scare when Kreider missed the empty net with less than 2 minutes in the game left but Tyler Motte was able to rally back and put the game away with his terrific off-the-boards ENG.
The Rangers came into this game on a mission and were better able to expose Carolina’s weaknesses. If they can win again at the Garden tomorrow to tie this series up, all of Carolina’s momentum is gone. If they can beat Carolina in Raleigh in Game 5, that could completely tilt Carolina into making even more frequent dumb mistakes. They haven’t lost at home in the playoffs yet, so that could get into their heads and make them panic. The confidence in the Rangers winning tomorrow is bumped up a few notches with yesterday’s performance.