Rangers run out of chances, eliminated from playoff race with 7-3 loss to Hurricanes
There are still two games left on the schedule, but they are meaningless now for the New York Rangers, who were eliminated from playoff contention Saturday with a 7-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh.
They are the fourth defending Presidents’ Trophy winner to fail to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs the season after finishing with the best regular-season record in the NHL. The first to do so were the Rangers, in 1992-93. The most recent were the Boston Bruins in 2014-15.
“It’s disappointing for everybody. It certainly wasn’t anybody’s plan coming into the year, especially coming off of last year. Yet, here we are,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said postgame. “We had opportunities in the last 20 games to make our own noise and make our own way, and we didn’t do that. So, it’s on us. We needed to be better.”
Their latest loss was pretty much standard fare this season. The Rangers (37-36-7) were burned time and again by leaving Hurricanes shooters wide open in the slot Saturday. They also lost a mountain of puck battles and turned the puck over under heavy pressure constantly, especially in the opening two periods.
Nothing we haven’t seen before from this team, which fashioned one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.
Though they showed life in the third period, the writing was on the wall when the Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead in the first period and ran out to a 4-0 advantage in the second. The Rangers are the only team in the NHL this season not to come back and win a single game when trailing by multiple goals.
It must’ve been sweet payback for the Hurricanes, who were eliminated by the Rangers in their own building in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Second Round last spring. Carolina had seven different goal scorers Saturday, led by Seth Jarvis, who had a goal and two assists. Jordan Staal and Jackson Blake each had a goal and an assist.
Pyotr Kochetkov made 28 saves for the Hurricanes, who will play the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He outdueled Igor Shesterkin, who stopped 21 of 26 shots. The other two goals were empty-netters for Carolina.
Will Cuylle scored his 20th goal for the Rangers, who needed to win each of their final three games to keep their remote playoff chances alive. J.T. Miller and Adam Fox added third-period goals.
“You can’t just show up and expect it to go the same way it did last year. We earned it last year. We certainly didn’t earn it this year,” Vincent Trocheck said.
Related: NHL Insider speculates ‘tight-lipped’ Rangers will fire Peter Laviolette, retain Chris Drury
Carolina Hurricanes 7 – New York Rangers 3
Each team came ready to play to start the first period in what had the feel of a playoff game right away. But by the end of the first period, the Rangers were hanging on and happy to get a reprieve when the intermission arrived.
The Rangers had three shots within the opening minutes of the game, but managed only two the rest of the period. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers were out-chanced 13-3 and, so, it was fitting the Hurricanes had a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Jalen Chatfield opened the scoring at 9:02, sending a long-range shot over Shesterkin’s right shoulder for his seventh goal of the season. It was the culmination of the Hurricanes being quicker with and without the puck, and a slick passing sequence that allowed Chatfield time and space to pick his spot.
The Hurricanes were all over the Rangers the rest of the period, and the visitors were unable to generate hardly any zone time. Then after an extended shift in the Rangers end, the Hurricanes doubled their lead at 17:46.
Carolina won some puck battles after Trocheck blocked a shot in front of Shesterkin and had the puck caught up in his jersey. Trocheck, shaken up by the blocked shot, dropped the puck at his feet and kicked it away, but the Rangers couldn’t clear the zone. Shortly afterward, Sebastian Aho sent a pass from behind the goal line to the unchecked Jarvis in front. The Hurricanes forward was all alone and made no mistake, zipping his 32nd goal past Shesterkin to make it 2-0.
Despite being on their heels the rest of the period, the Rangers made it through the rest unscathed and looked to regroup in the first intermission.
Now, about that.
The start of the second period looked like an extension of the first. The Rangers turned the puck over again and again in their own end under relentless pressure from the Hurricanes, until it finally cost them. Blake slipped in behind Mika Zibanejad after Jarvis worked the puck free in front of Shesterkin and scored his 17th goal to make it 3-0 at 2:02.
Their season hanging in the balance, the Rangers finally tilted the ice for the next several minutes. They came within inches of breaking through after Kochetkov was drawn way out of position but somehow Artemi Panarin, staring at an open net after a pass from Alexis Lafreniere, cut it too fine with his shot and hit the post.
As should have been expected the way this season’s played out for the Rangers, the Hurricanes came back the other way and scored when Mark Jankowski was left unmarked in the slot to roof a pass from William Carrier at 12:59.
Instead of 3-1, it was 4-0. Panarin, the 37-goal scorer this season, was left with an incredulous look on his face, sitting on the Rangers bench.
Carolina had the chance to really put this one away when awarded the first power play of the afternoon with Matt Rempe taking a slashing penalty at 17:28. Though under siege, the Rangers killed off the penalty. And in the final seconds of the period, they finally broke through against Kochetkov, as well.
Cuylle was able to beat the Hurricanes goalie from left wing off the rush at 19:43. It’s one Kochetkov would like back. Cuylle’s shot slipped past Kochetkov’s glove, hit the far post, and went in to give the Rangers some hope heading into the third period.
It took three minutes 45 seconds for the Rangers to dig a bigger hole for themselves. Staal caught Braden Schneider flatfooted at the Carolina blue line, then dashed the length of the ice, a step ahead of the Rangers defenseman. Staal roofed a left-wing shot past Shesterkin and it was 5-1 Hurricanes.
But the Rangers still had some fight in them. Miller scored on the power play at 6:07. And then Fox broke to the net, accepted a pretty feed from Panarin and potted a backhand shot past Kochetkov at 9:02. In an eyeblink, the Rangers were back in it, 5-3. And they headed to a power play after Fox’s goal because Carolina unsuccessfully challenged the play for goalie interference.
It was a risky challenge by Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour, and perhaps ill conceived considering there was no clear-cut interference and his team still had a two-goal lead.
The Rangers failed to score on the power play, but did come within inches of making it 5-4 with the teams back at full strength at 13:16. Kochetkov made a save on a shot through traffic and the rebound popped out to Miller on the door step. Miller chipped the puck off Kochetkov’s arm and it then deflected off the post and fell straight down by the goal line. The Hurricanes goalie nearly knocked it into his own net, but Chatfield pushed the puck back under Kochetkov in a wild, heart-pounding sequence.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette pulled Shesterkin for an extra attacker with about 3:40 remaining in the third period. Seconds later, the Rangers turned the puck over at center ice, and Jordan Martinook sent the puck down into the empty net to make it 6-3.
After the face-off, the Rangers nearly got that goal back. But Lafreniere’s open right-wing drive was gloved down by Kochetkov. Logan Stankoven added another empty-net goal at 17:59 and the Rangers were done, for the afternoon and for the season.
No one could’ve predicted heading into this season that the Rangers would have nothing to play with two games left in the 2024-25 season. But that’s where they’re at. So, it’ll be a road game at the Florida Panthers before the season concludes Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden.
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