Hurricanes' special teams struggles prove costly in Game 1 loss to Rangers

NEW YORK -- The Carolina Hurricanes' loss in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round wasn’t anything special in their eyes.

The Hurricanes rarely beat themselves, but they did in large part on Sunday, falling 4-3 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden after making several uncharacteristic mistakes on special teams.

They allowed two power-play goals in the first period to fall into a 3-1 hole. Their power play, lights out during the regular season at No. 2 in the NHL (26.9 percent), went 0-for-5.

Carolina went 5-for-15 with the man-advantage in a five-game ouster of the New York Islanders in the first round.

“There’s different ways of looking at this game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “For me it was, obviously, we have to get better on the specialty-team area because if we go minus-2 in that area, it’s not going to work.”

Carolina’s penalty kill, the best in the League in the regular season (86.4 percent), was overwhelmed in the first period, allowing quick goals on each of New York's first two power plays.

“Lot of things happened there, but first game in a new round and, obviously, the crowd is into it and all that,” Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said. “I think it’s pretty normal.

“Trust me, we all do our homework, we pre-scout, we try to learn as much as possible, but a lot of times it comes down to some simple plays, winning 50-50 pucks or they made some nice plays there and got two big goals. We can be a little sharper.”

Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said that the puck movement while the Rangers were on the power play was quicker than they have seen.

“I think our kill is predicated on pressure and you have to make three or four great passes, and they did,” he said. “They made some good plays and we’ll adjust, we’ll find ways to pressure more at the right times and the right opportunities and make sure we can do a better job.”

Game 2 is in New York on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

On Sunday, Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad gave New York a 2-1 lead at 10:05 of the first with his second goal of the period, nine seconds after Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo took Carolina’s first penalty, a roughing infraction for a neutral-zone hit on Will Cuylle.

It was three passes off a face-off win, including a sweet behind-the-back primary assist from Chris Kreider.

Vincent Trocheck scored at 16:28 of the first to make it 3-1. Following a series of six passes, Trocheck shoveled home the rebound of a shot by Zibanejad 14 seconds after Evgeny Kuznetsov was assessed a cross-checking penalty.

Zibanejad scored the game-opening goal at 2:46 of the first period on the Rangers' first shot after he was left inexplicably alone in front.

“We just blew a cover. That’s not what we normally do,” Brind’Amour said.

Slavin tied it 1-1 with a goal that was deflected up high and past a surprised Igor Shesterkin 62 seconds after Zibanejad scored.

Each team scored on its first shot on goal.

The Hurricanes closed it to 3-2 on a goal by Martin Necas at 2:48 of the third period, but Artemi Panarin scored at 8:21, turning a neutral-zone turnover into a wrister from the right face-off dot that leaked through goalie Frederik Andersen, who made 19 saves.

At that point, the Garden crowd was mocking Andersen pretty loudly, chanting his name in a sing-song fashion.

Yet, the Hurricanes kept coming.

Forward Seth Jarvis scored with 1:47 remaining, and Carolina pushed for the equalizer during the final 100 seconds.

Shesterkin made 22 saves.

The pushback in the second half of the game took away a bit of the sting of the early debacle on special teams.

The Hurricanes drew five penalties and outshot the Rangers 19-16 during the final two periods. Shot attempts for the game were 72-55 in favor of Carolina.

There are building blocks there, the Hurricanes say, and they plan to work with them in preparation for Game 2.

“You can’t spot them a couple of goals like that, especially that team,” Staal said. “I thought we battled hard, got to our game, and whether they were sitting back or we were getting to our game, or a little bit of both, we had a chance to get it. We are going to learn from this.”