NEW YORK — Here we go again.
The Carolina Hurricanes’ postseason road woes continued Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, losing 4-1 to the Rangers in Game 4 to even their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at two games apiece.
“It’s very eerily similar,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the Hurricanes going up 2-0 in the series only to lose twice on the road as they did in Round 1 against Boston. “So we’ve just got to find a way to fight through it.”
Rangers enforcer Ryan Reaves promised the Hurricanes he would “get in their face” in the aftermath of a postgame scuffle between Max Domi and Ryan Lindgren that led to Carolina defenseman Tony DeAngelo and New York coach Gerard Gallant getting into a screaming match.
Instead, it was New York defenseman Jacob Trouba who changed the game with his physicality.
Trouba lined up Domi for a hit in the neutral zone just past the midway point of the first period, launching himself and connecting with Domi’s head as the Carolina forward slipped to the ice. Hurricanes forward Steven Lorentz came to Domi’s aid, and Trouba met him with a cross-check with both dropping the gloves.
Lorentz was assessed a misconduct and instigator that gave New York a power play.
“I thought I was doing the right thing but unfortunately ended up costing our team, so that’s on me,” Lorentz said.
The Rangers made the most of it.
Andrew Copp made a seam pass to the right circle and Frank Vatrano finished it to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 13:31 of the first period. New York led the rest of the way.
“The way it unfolded was obviously worse than it could have been,” Staal said of the Hurricanes coming out of the sequence with the extra penalty and the Rangers converting on the power play. “And obviously (Lorentz) did a great job of stepping up for his teammate. But I think as a group, especially on the road, I think we’ve got to do a better job of keeping our emotions in check.”
Things seemed to go off the rails from there for the road-fragile Hurricanes, who are now 0-5 away from PNC Arena.
New York doubled its lead 71 seconds later when the Hurricanes’ Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck failed to clear the zone, and Adam Fox redirected a Lindgren shot past Antti Raanta (24 saves) to make it 2-0 with just over four minutes left in the opening period.
“We kind of did it to ourselves a little bit in the first,” Brind’Amour said. “And then we got kind of playing again, but by then it’s too late. You gave them two, it’s tough to come back.”
Especially against all-world goalie Igor Shesterkin, who made 30 saves and has allowed just five goals through the first four games of the series.
“We got to be grittier and harder around the net and get to those tough areas if we’re gonna want to find a way to beat him,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said.
The other part of that is Carolina’s power play, which got its first chance midway through the game when the score was 2-0 but didn’t manage a shot on goal. It went 0 for 2 on the night, is 0 for 9 in the series and hasn’t scored in the last five games.
“Our power play’s got to contribute,” Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis said. “We’ve got to do something, get pucks to the net or anything to get past him. … You’re not going to beat him on the first shot. It’s gonna be second, third, fourth, so it’s a matter of creating chaos and hopefully our special teams step up.”
New York extended the lead to three late in the second period when Lindgren’s shot trickled through Raanta and Mika Zibanejad located it behind the Carolina and swept it in the net at 16:48.
Teuvo Teravainen scored at 6:33 of the third, but Andrew Copp’s goal at 11:10 sealed the Rangers’ win.
Game 5 shifts back to Raleigh where the Hurricanes are a perfect 6-0 this postseason and hoping to again let home-ice advantage give them an edge in the series.
“We know we have a big game ahead of us at home and that’s all we think about,” Aho said. “We want to win that hockey game and move on.”
Notes: Lorentz was assessed 17 minutes in penalties for his altercation with Trouba. He has 16 PIMs in 112 career regular season games. … Copp finished with three points, a new postseason career high. … The Hurricanes won 33 of 51 faceoffs, led by 11-of-14 and 8-of-9 efforts by Staal and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, respectively. … DeAngelo has gone six games without a point and Jaccob Slavin has gone four after both led the team with eight points in the first round. … Trocheck is in a six-game point drought after having five points in the first four games of the postseason. … Andrei Svechnikov has gone five games without a point and has been held off the scoresheet in eight of his last nine games.
