Rangers face elimination after feeble Game 5 loss to Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Rangers are headed back home in do-or-die mode once again.

After losing 3-1 to the Hurricanes in Game 5 Thursday night at PNC Arena, the Rangers will need to stave off elimination for a fourth time this postseason at Madison Square Garden on Saturday and then be the first team in these playoffs to defeat Carolina at home in a Game 7 Monday in order to keep their season alive.

Carolina now has a chance to clinch this series in New York in Game 6 and advance to play the Lightning in the Eastern Conference final.

The Rangers, on the other hand, will see if they have at least one more comeback in them this season.

“We’re down 3-1 last series, we’re down 2-0 in this series, and all that matters is that next game,” said Ryan Strome, who led the Rangers with four shots on goal and did not receive much help from his fellow top-six players. “I think this group has really bought into that. Everyone was talking about momentum after Games 3 and 4, and tonight they won. It was just single game, we got to get back at it and win one game.”

The pressure was on the Hurricanes in this one, considering they were defending their unbeaten streak on home ice this postseason after dropping their fourth and fifth straight road games in Games 3 and 4 at the Garden.

But they took the reins in Game 5, put together their best performance of the series and ran away with it.

The Rangers lost all of their jump after a goal by Strome was overturned due to an offside challenge early in the second period. From then on, the Rangers were caught in the eye of the storm.

Shortly after the overturned tally, Frank Vatrano was called for hooking to send the Hurricanes on their first power play of the night. Carolina top-line winger Teuvo Teravainen then sniped one from the bottom of the left faceoff circle for the 2-1 score at 9:47.

Thanks to goalie Igor Shesterkin and the goalposts around him, the Rangers were lucky to head into the third period only down 2-1 after only putting up just 10 shots on goal through 40 minutes.

“I didn’t think we played our game at all,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought we were reaching with sticks all night instead of finishing checks with the body like we did the other nights. To me, it was the worst game in the five games so far in this series. They pretty well dominated that game tonight.”

Hurricanes winger Andrei Svechnikov, who hadn’t gotten on the score sheet through the first four games of this series, netted a dagger on a breakaway in the third period to secure the win. PNC Arena then took a page from Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena’s book and echoed “IIIGGOORRR” around the building.

The Rangers’ marquee forwards went quiet during five-on-five play — and it was far from the first time in these playoffs. Vatrano, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, who scored the Rangers’ lone goal on the power play, totaled just two shots. Artemi Panarin generated zero shots and Andrew Copp had just two.

This is familiar territory for the Rangers, who have ridden their resilience all season long. They’ve survived three elimination games. They’ll need to find at least two more in them.

“The way I look at it, we’ve played a lot of must-win games lately and we’ve done a pretty good job,” Strome said. “Tonight, we slipped up a little bit. But we’ve played some desperate hockey. We talked about experience with this group going into the playoffs, but when I look around the room and the feel in that dressing room, its super confident at all times.

“I think the first series helped a little bit and then having to win Games 3 and 4, those were pretty much must-win games and we did a good job. We can draw from those experiences.”