Rangers go up 3-0 on Hurricanes as Artemi Panarin scores Game 3 winner early in overtime

RALEIGH, N.C. — This was supposed to be a long series. It may not be.

The Rangers, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best record in the regular season, were supposed to be the underdog in this second-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, the betting favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

But the Rangers are one win away from dispatching the Hurricanes and moving on to the Eastern Conference final after Artemi Panarin scored at 1:43 of overtime Thursday night to give the Rangers a 3-2 victory and a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven series.

They can finish off their second sweep of the playoffs with a win in Game 4, which will be Saturday night at PNC Arena.

Panarin, who scored 49 goals in the regular season, is hardly known as a net front presence, but hw scored his fourth goal of the playoffs — and his fourth game-winner — with a slick deflection of a pass from Vincent Trocheck to give the Rangers their seventh straight win of the postseason.

“I’m just so happy,’’ a smiling Panarin said. “Just a lot of emotion. But I can’t really explain to you. I guess I don’t really understand what’s happened.’’

“It was a great play by all three of them,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of the game-winner, referencing Panarin, Trocheck, and their linemate, Alexis Lafreniere, who won the puck in the corner and got it to Trocheck.

“They got it into the offensive zone . . . pick a puck up out of the corner, and, you know, that’s Artemi. I mean, he’s got the talent to make that play. And just a really nice play by Troch and a great finish by Artemi.’’

The seven straight playoff wins matches the postseason start of the 1994 Rangers who was also the Presidents’ Trophy winner that year. And everyone knows how that season ended.

For the first time in the playoffs, Laviolette made a change in his lineup, inserting center Filip Chytil, who had missed the final 72 games of the regular season with what is almost certainly a concussion, and had been ruled out for the rest of the season in late January.

Chytil rejoined the team about four weeks ago and has been practicing, full contact, with the hopes of being able to return at some point in the playoffs.

A joyous Chytil, talking with reporters after, couldn’t identify the point at which he realized a potential return to action this season was even possible.

“I don’t even know,’’ he said. “I just, in one moment, I felt like this team is unbelievable. Without me for a whole season look what they did. But yeah, I know, with me we can be even better. And I just love this team. I love these players. I love everybody in this organization. So I just, in one moment, I just realized that I wanted to be back, and I did everything for that. And we are here today.’’

Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour also made a significant change to his lineup, replacing goaltender Frederik Andersen with Pyotr Kochetkov. Kochetkov made 22 saves, while Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was brilliant again, stopping 45 of 47 Hurricanes shots.

Lafreniere’s third goal in two games, at 6:25 of the third period, had given the Rangers a 2-1 lead, but Carolina pulled Kochetkov with 2:22 left in regulation for the extra skater, and the Hurricanes tied it on a goal by Andrei Svechnikov with 1:36 remaining.

The Rangers had one more chance to win the game in regulation when Chris Kreider, who’d already scored a shorthanded goal in the game, had a semi-breakaway inside the final minute. But as Kreider tried to cut across from the right to the left, Kochetkov sprang forward and poked the puck off his stick with 35 seconds left to send the game to overtime.

For the first time in the series, Carolina scored the game’s first goal, with Jake Guentzel, who’d scored twice in Game 2, tipping in a shot by Dmitry Orlov for his fourth goal of the playoffs at 10:14 of the first period. But though the Hurricanes outshot the Rangers 17-7 in the first period, that was the only goal they would get in the first 20 minutes.

The Rangers then tied the game on Kreider’s shorthanded goal, with Adam Fox in the box. Mika Zibanejad, their leading scorer in the playoffs entering the game, made a nice play to chip the puck off the boards, past Carolina point man Brent Burns and out of the defensive zone, then recovered it as Kreider hustled to create a two-on-one. Zibanejad sent a diagonal pass to Kreider, who redirected it in with his backhand at 8:30.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.