Rangers outlast Hurricanes in Game 2 as Vincent Trocheck's scores double-overtime winner
Vincent Trocheck wasn’t speechless, exactly. He just couldn’t find the right words to describe what had just happened, and how, exactly, his Rangers had just won their sixth straight playoff game, a 4-3, double-overtime thriller in Game 2 of their second-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
“I thought we were very resilient,’’ said Trocheck, who jammed in a rebound to score the winning goal, on a power play, at 7:24 of the second extra period. “We went down a goal a couple of different times, stuck with it. Obviously Shesty [goalie Igor Shesterkin] played outstanding. He kept us in the game multiple different times. Then on the goal, I couldn’t tell you what happened. It went in.’’
The Rangers had to rally from deficits of 2-1 and 3-2, and they needed Shesterkin to make 54 saves to give them a chance. In the end, the same thing that made the difference in Game 1, special teams, made the difference in Game 2.
The Rangers’ power play, which had gone 2-for-2 in Game 1, was 2-for-7 this time, but the two goals were Chris Kreider’s, at 6:07 of the third period, which tied the game 3-3 and forced overtime, and Trocheck’s, which won it.
The penalty kill, for the second straight game, snuffed out all five Carolina power plays, including one in each of the two overtime periods.
“That part of the game’s going well right now,’’ said captain Jacob Trouba, who took three minor penalties in the game, including one in the first overtime, for tripping. “Obviously, you don’t want to rely on it, you don’t want to win games strictly that way . . . but winning the special teams battle is proven to be a key part of winning NHL hockey games.’’
The victory gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, sweeping the first two at the Garden. The scene now shifts to Raleigh for Games 3 and 4. Game 3 is Thursday.
Trocheck, who leads the Rangers in goals in the preseason, with five, has scored in five straight games, tying the longest playoff goal streak in franchise history. Cecil Dillon scored in five straight in 1933.
The Rangers also became the fourth Presidents’ Trophy team to open the playoffs with six straight wins, following the 2021 Colorado Avalanche, the 1999 Dallas Stars and the ’94 Rangers, who won their first seven playoff games. The ’99 Stars and ’94 Rangers won the Stanley Cup.
The Rangers opened the scoring in the first period, when Alexis Lafreniere, who had two goals in the game, beat Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen (35 saves) with a precise shot through a screen at 10:53 after Alex Wennberg chased down a long pass from Trouba, controlled it on the corner boards and sent it back to the point for K’Andre Miller. Miller’s shot was blocked in front, but Lafreniere got the loose puck and fired from a sharp angle. Andersen never saw it.
The Rangers had a chance to double the lead when Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov was sent off for tripping Shesterkin behind the net at 12:05. Shesterkin wanted to chase after Svechnikov, but was stopped, and cooler heads prevailed.
The power play moved the puck around and looked great, but it didn’t score, and little more than a minute after the power play expired, Jake Guentzel scored his first of two goals, a tip-in of a shot by Sebastian Aho at 15:07, to tie the score 1-1. The Hurricanes then took the lead when defenseman Dmitry Orlov scored with 5.4 seconds left in the opening period, deflecting in a shot from former Ranger Brady Skjei to make it 2-1.
Lafreniere’s second goal, a backdoor tap-in of a pretty feed from Adam Fox, tied the game 2-2 at 7:32 of the second, but Guentzel put Carolina back in front with his second goal. He skated right to the middle of the slot, unchecked, and hammered home a feed from Aho to put Carolina back in front 3-2 with 1:42 left in the second period.
“As the game went on, I thought we stayed with it, maybe even got better through the overtimes,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had to kill a couple penalties in the overtime, so you’ve got to fight through that, and then get the power-play opportunity ... It was a roller coaster a little bit. For the guys to stay in there, locked in, and focused like that was a pretty big effort.’’
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.
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