The Hurricanes make a statement at the world’s most famous arena.
After letting a 2-0 lead slip away on Long Island on Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes finished the job on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.
In a big matchup between the two Metropolitan Division rivals, the Hurricanes got a big game from Andrei Svechnikov while Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall recorded their first points in red and white en route to a decisive 4-0 win over the Blueshirts.
It took the Canes less than a minute to find the back of the net, as Hall found Svechnikov wide open at the top of the zone, and the Russian had all day to wire a shot past his countryman Igor Shesterkin.
That 1-0 lead stood up for the first period, as Shesterkin and Andersen traded huge saves on a number of high-danger chances.
The second period was more of the same, as the Hurricanes’ penalty kill went two-for-two, Andersen robbed Chris Kreider on what appeared to be a sure goal, and Svechnikov made a great defensive stick play to break up a grade-A chance to keep the Rangers off the board.
Shesterkin came up with a big save on Rantanen on a 2-on-0, but a similar chance gave the Canes a 2-0 lead when Blake sauced a perfect pass to Rantanen who deftly corralled it to a wide open Svechnikov for a tap-in past an overcommitted Shesterkin.
It would have been fair to say that the Rangers were playing at or above Carolina’s level for the first 40 minutes, but that was not at all the case in the last 20.
The Canes put an exclamation point on the game when Svechnikov picked up his third point of the night on a primary assist to Sebastian Aho off an abysmal clearing attempt by Chris Kreider.
Nearly immediately after, Jordan Martinook found Seth Jarvis after another Ranger breakdown for an uncontested goal in-close on Shesterkin to make it 4-0.
With the game well in hand, the remaining intrigue centered around Frederik Andersen’s ability to preserve the shutout, which he all but sealed with a big save on a Mika Zibanejad writer on a partial break.
The Hurricanes will be back at home on Thursday night when they welcome Taylor Hall’s former team the Chicago Blackhawks to Raleigh for a 7:00 PM puck drop.