3 Keys: Rangers at Hurricanes, Game 4 of Eastern 2nd Round

(1M) Rangers at (2M) Hurricanes

Eastern Conference Second Round, Game 4

7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN< TVAS, CBC

New York leads best-of-7 series 3-0

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The New York Rangers can advance to the Eastern Conference Final and set an NHL record at the same time by winning Game 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Saturday.

The Rangers have won seven straight games, tied for the longest winning streak to begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs by a Presidents' Trophy-winning team. The record was originally set by New York in 1994, the last time it won the Stanley Cup.

"Our guys seem pretty focused on the game," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We know exactly what we're going to get. Carolina is an excellent team. They're well coached. They have great players and they play an aggressive game. So, we know what we're getting into. We have to be ready for it and then we have to make sure we play our game inside of it."

New York can also become the first team to win at least eight straight games to start a postseason since the Edmonton Oilers set the NHL record by winning their first nine games in 1985 en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

The Detroit Red Wings in 1952, Montreal Canadiens in 1960 and St. Louis Blues in 1969 each won their first eight postseason games. The Red Wings and Canadiens went on to win the Cup. The Blues lost in the Stanley Cup Final.

In fact, of the 11 teams that previously won at least seven straight games to begin the playoffs, eight went on to win the Stanley Cup.

"We're desperate to win one more game as well," Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. "We just have to make sure that desperation level is high, come out and match theirs and go from there."

The Hurricanes are trying to avoid being swept out of the playoffs for the second straight season. They lost four one-goal games to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final last year.

The Rangers have won all three games in this series by one goal, the past two in overtime. They're 15-for-15 on the penalty kill with a short-handed goal. Goalie Igor Shesterkin has made 121 saves on 129 shots for a .938 save percentage in the series.

"All we're really focused on is today," Carolina defenseman Brady Skjei said. "You can't look ahead of it at all. You've got to win today and things will take of themselves after that."

Only four times in NHL history has a team come back from down 3-0 to win a best-of-7 playoff series. The team leading 3-0 has gone on to win the series 98.1 percent of the time (205-4).

Here are 3 keys to Game 4:

1. Who is in net for the Hurricanes?

Frederik Andersen started Games 1 and 2. Pyotr Kochetkov stated Game 3. It's still a mystery who will start Game 4 because Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour, who has typically announced the starting goalie, chose not to Saturday morning.

"I've definitely made a decision, but I'm going to change the mojo a little and let you guys have to sweat it out," Brind'Amour said.

Brind'Amour said he went with Kochetkov in Game 3 because he felt it was time to get Andersen some rest.

Andersen started the Hurricanes' first seven games of the playoffs after alternating starts with Kochetkov in the last quarter of the season. Neither started two games in a row from March 7 to the end of the regular season.

But Andersen allowed eight goals on 62 shots (.871 save percentage) in the first two games of the series, including four on 39 shots in Game 2, a 4-3 double overtime loss. So, Brind'Amour might have also been trying to change the mojo by going to Kochetkov in Game 3.

Kochetkov allowed three goals on 25 shots in a 3-2 overtime loss Thursday.

Whoever is in net has the challenge of trying to be at least one save better than Shesterkin, who has won seven straight starts with a 2.01 goals-against average and .935 save percentage.

2. Solving Shesterkin

Carolina is peppering Shesterkin with shots but not breaking through nearly enough, scoring eight goals on 129 shots, none on 21 on the power play. Shesterkin has also made 11 saves against Carolina's penalty killers.

"It's been my experience that to go a long way in this," Laviolette said, "your goaltender really, truly might have to be your best player, one of them anyway, and he's started that way. He just seems like he's really got his focus right now, really has his game."

It's fair to question if Shesterkin is also in the heads of the Hurricanes' shooters. They won't ever admit that, but Brind'Amour's assessment of Shesterkin could be telling.

"He's made a lot of quality saves too," Brind'Amour said. "I've looked at them and there's a couple that's world class, and that's a couple that go the other way that's the difference. Then you're not talking about, 'You've got to get better shots.' He's been the difference. There's no way around it. You've got to give him credit. You can say we're not getting good enough shots, but he's making some good saves too."

3. Where's the power?

New York is winning the special teams battle in this series by a landslide, outscoring Carolina 5-0, with four power-play goals and one short-handed.

It's probably too kind to just say the Hurricanes power play has been off the mark. It hasn't been close, in fact, going 0-for-15 in the series, including 0-for-5 with the short-handed goal against in Game 3.

"Listen, you've got to give them credit, I think that's the first thing you do," Brind'Amour said. "They're doing their system really well, knowing when to pressure and when not, and we just haven't handled that the way we normally do. I think that's really the beginning of it."

There's more, like holding onto pucks too long, not being quick with decisions, not making the right decisions, not going to the front of the net, not shooting from up top.

"I feel like we've been thinking about it almost too much," Carolina forward Martin Necas said. "Our power play has been good all season and even in the first round it was quite good, and now we're just thinking about them too much and we don't do the things we did well before.

"We don't get the pucks to the net. We just kind of play around, and that's what they want. We have to be more netfront, shoot from up top a little more. When he (Shesterkin) cannot see it, he cannot stop it. I feel like he's seen every puck we've shot so far this series and obviously that helps him, gets him going, and he's been quite good."

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Jack Roslovic

Artemi Panarin -- Vincent Trocheck -- Alexis Lafreniere

Will Cuylle -- Alex Wennberg -- Kaapo Kakko

Barclay Goodrow -- Jonny Brodzinski -- Jimmy Vesey

Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox

K'Andre Miller -- Braden Schneider

Erik Gustafsson -- Jacob Trouba

Igor Shesterkin

Jonathan Quick

Scratched: Zac Jones, Chad Ruhwedel, Louis Domingue, Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe

Injured: Filip Chytil (illness), Blake Wheeler (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Sebastian Aho -- Andrei Svechnikov

Jordan Martinook -- Jack Drury -- Martin Necas

Teuvo Teravainen -- Jordan Staal -- Seth Jarvis

Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Stefan Noesen

Jaccob Slavin -- Brent Burns

Brady Skjei -- Tony DeAngelo

Dmitry Orlov -- Jalen Chatfield

Frederik Andersen

Pyotr Kochetkov

Scratched: Maxime Comtois, Jackson Blake, Brendan Lemieux, Scott Morrow, Bradly Nadeau, Spencer Martin, Dylan Coghlan, Ryan Suzuki, Ronan Seeley

Injured: Jesper Fast (upper body), Brett Pesce (lower body)

Status report

Chytil did not participate in the morning skate Saturday; New York coach Peter Laviolette said the forward will be a game-time decision. Brodzinski was centering the fourth line during the morning skate. ... The Hurricanes did not hold a morning skate. … Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour did not name a starting goalie; Andersen was in the starter’s crease at practice Friday after Kochetkov made 22 saves in a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 3 on Thursday.

NHL.com independent correspondent Kurt Dusterberg contributed to this report