RALEIGH, N.C. -- The sun came up for the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.
After falling into a 2-0 hole – each a one-goal loss -- and being dominated by the New York Rangers in the battle of specials teams in the Eastern Conference Second Round, the Hurricanes could have been in as bleak a mood as the false dawn that greeted them when they arrived home in the wee hours.
Instead, they shook off a double-overtime 4-3 loss at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday and spoke of how good they feel going into Game 3 at PNC Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT, TruTV, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“We are confident in our group,” forward Martin Necas said after team met Wednesday morning at its home rink. “It’s not like we are down 2-0 and it’s series over or we are hanging our head down. Tomorrow’s a new day. We have a strong team and I believe we can do this.”
The fact that teams that win the first two games of a best-of-7 series advance 88.6 percent of the time doesn’t matter. The fact that Carolina has won just one of seven playoff series in which it has lost the first two on the road is meaningless.
“You don’t look at the big picture,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. “You’re always, ‘What do we do to win that one game?’ And, then go from there.”
The Hurricanes may not spend time dwelling on the big picture or the past, but they know the numbers and they aren’t sobered by them.
“I don’t really care,” Carolina forward Seth Jarvis said. “We just worry about what’s in our room.”
Jarvis points to two seasons ago.
The Hurricanes played the Rangers in the second round in 2022 and won the first two games at home -- including Game 1 in overtime. They then lost four of the next five and the series.
“We haven’t lost any confidence in our room,” Jarvis said. “We are just excited to get it going at home.”
There are reasons for optimism.
The Hurricanes were the better team at 5-on-5 play for long periods in Game 2, outshooting the Rangers 44-28. They also had 17 more shot attempts at 5-on-5 (92-75).
Despite all their lapses -- on the penalty kill, in taking retaliation penalties and not blocking out in front of their goalie -- the Hurricanes feel they are a bounce away from being at worst even in this series.
“There’s a ton of good parts to our game,” Jarvis said. “We need to keep going. Five-on-five has been pretty good, especially last game; I think we kind of found it and had a lot more success.
“It’s tough to stay positive sometimes, but there are a lot of good things going on in our game right now.”
Carolina’s top line of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Jake Guentzel were a handful all night in Game 2.
Guentzel had two goals and looked like the Rangers killer he was during when he played with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who traded him to Carolina on March 7 ahead of the 2024 Trade Deadline. Aho had three assists and was dangerous nearly every time he touched the puck.
Goalie Frederik Andersen played well enough, making 35 saves, and will likely remain the starter in Game 3.
The temptation to go to Pyotr Kochetkov, who was 23-13-4 and served as the No. 1 while Andersen was out with blood-clotting issues remains just that.
“We’ll see,” Brind’Amour said. “We’ll see how Freddie is feeling today. We’ll make that decision tomorrow, but I think Freddie’s been good so that’s not a concern, it’s more how he is feeling.”
Carolina’s power play, which was second best in the regular season at 26.9 percent, has gone 0-for-5 in each of the first two games, a trend Brind’Amour believes will change if his team commits to getting to the front of the net and taking away the eyes of Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, who was brilliant in making 54 saves in Game 2.
If it does, look out.
“You look at the whole series and there is one little play here or there that could change the whole outlook of a game or the whole outlook of a series. We have to find a way to create as many of those opportunities as we can and, hopefully, we will get a break or a bounce here too.”
