Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said he’s happy with how his team played in two straight losses to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. But as the second-round series shifts back to Raleigh, N.C., for Game 5 on Thursday night, he is looking at one area for his team to improve.
“We want to score on our power play just as they are on theirs,” Brind’Amour said Wednesday. “That makes a big difference if we can connect on that.”
Right now, it might be what’s making the difference in the series.
The Rangers scored a power-play goal in each of their two victories, and generated momentum early in Game 4 from a man-advantage om which they didn’t score, but peppered Antti Raanta with shots, getting their offense into rhythm. Meanwhile, Carolina has yet to score a power-play goal in four games — though the decisive moment in its Game 2 victory was a shorthanded goal by Brendan Smith during a four-minute power play on which the Rangers failed to convert.
The Hurricanes’ power play converted at a 21.98 percent clip during the regular season, 13th in the league. They’ve seemingly met their match in the Rangers — who have avoided taking too many penalties to begin with and played assiduously on the kill.
“Knowing we’re good up the ice, make it hard for them to gain entries, I think is step one,” Tyler Motte said. “Being good when we can pressure on opportunities is big as well. And then just maintaining structure and working as a four-man unit, I think that’s really what works. It’s been successful, it’s obviously really important this time of year more than any.”
Special teams were a strength of the Rangers during the regular season, though that had more to do with their power play than the penalty kill. After a slow start to the series, in which the Rangers struggled to deal with an aggressive Carolina penalty kill, they seem to have found their rhythm.
In Game 4, the puck hummed at five-on-four. Carolina could barely get the puck out of its zone. Raanta was under constant pressure. Even when the Rangers didn’t break through, it helped them dictate terms and conjure momentum.
“We know we’re facing if not the best penalty kill in the league, right near the top all the time,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “They’re aggressive, they put the pressure on you. [Tuesday] night we were fortunate, we made a great pass to the backdoor and scored a great goal off it. And the first power play set the tone for the game.”
That is what the Rangers failed to do in Games 1 and 2 at Carolina. And it is what they must carry into Game 5.