The New York Rangers will look to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the second round of the National Hockey League postseason. The Rangers are on the road at the Carolina Hurricanes for Game 3. The winner of this series will head to the Eastern Conference Finals, and take on either the Boston Bruins or Florida Panthers.
The New York Rangers are the top seed in all of the National Hockey League. New York went 55-23-4 in the regular season, and have won all six of their postseason games so far. The Rangers beat the Hurricanes 4-3 in double overtime on Tuesday.
For Carolina, they have their backs to the wall. The Hurricanes are down 2-0 after two road losses at Madison Square Garden. The Hurricanes went 52-23-7 in the regular season, which was second in the Metro Division.
The Carolina Hurricanes are favorites in this game. Carolina is listed at -170 over the New York Rangers. The total for this game is set at 5.5.
Hurricanes Need a Win
Carolina is licking their chops after leading 2-1 after one and 3-2 after two. The Hurricanes did not score the final 1:30 of the second, all of the third, the overtime or double overtime periods. Carolina did get goals from two goals from Jake Guentzel in the game, with the other from Dmitri Orlov.
Guentzel has recorded points in all but one of the seven postseason games so far. He has 3 goals and four assists so far. Sebastian Aho recorded an assist on each of the goals Tuesday, and now has five so far in the series. He scored two goals and had an assist in the Islanders series.
The Hurricanes saw Frederik Anderson turn away 35 shots. Anderson is now 4-3 in the postseason. During the regular season, the netminer went 13-2-0 with a 1.84 goals against average.
Trocheck Magic
Vincent Trocheck has had an outstanding postseason so far. He recorded his fifth goal of the postseason at the 7:24 mark of the second overtime to win the game. He has four points in the series so far, and has now scored in five straight games. He has recorded at least one point in each of the postseason games.
Chris Kreider was the one that tied the game on an assist from Trocheck and Artemi Panarin. Krieder has three goals in the postseason, to go along with his 3 assists. In between the pipes for the Rangers was Igor SHesterkin. He turned away 54 shots in the Game 2 win. He will look for his ninth straight win as a starter. THe last time he lost was on April 9th at the Islanders.
New York was 7th in scoring this season with 3.39 goals per game. The Rangers scored on 26.4% of their power play chances, which was third in the league. Defensively, the Rangers were 8th, allowing teams to score just 2.76 goals per game.
Hurricanes Make it a Series
What a season it has been for the New York Rangers, The Rangers look poised to get to the Eastern Conference Finals. But, before they do so, they will have to play a couple road games.
The Hurricanes know they need to get a win. Look for Carolina to play strong and desperate here. New York falls in their first postseason game. The Carolina Hurricanes win this game. Bet Carolina -170 over New York.
