Hurricanes win Game 5, push Rangers to brink of elimination

The Hurricanes controlled long stretches of play by sustaining their aggressive style, finishing with a 34-17 shot advantage to keep the pressure on Shesterkin while also easing the burden on Antti Raanta (16 saves) in Carolina’s net.

Now Carolina faces the challenge of putting away a team that has been resilient, even stubborn, when facing a series deficit. The Rangers rallied from a 3-1 hole to beat Pittsburgh in a seven-game first-round series, then lost the first two games against Carolina before fighting back to even at home.

Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal for New York, winning a first-period faceoff and then drifting to the left side for the putaway just six seconds into the man advantage. Shesterkin — a finalist for both the Vezina Trophy for the league’s top goalie and Hart Trophy for most valuable player — finished with 31 saves against a steady stream of work.

The Hurricanes’ power-play struggles have been going for two months, with coach Rod Brind’Amour preaching the importance of execution more than any major changes to what had been one of the league’s top-10 units to that point. But things just hadn’t improved, with Carolina coming into this game converting on just 9 of 89 opportunities (10.1%) since late March.

Yet after an 0 for 9 start in the series, the Hurricanes finally broke through with quick and crisp puck movement. Rookie Seth Jarvis zipped the puck to Teravainen for the left-side putaway to beat Shesterkin at 9:47 of the second for the 2-1 lead, marking Carolina’s first goal with the man advantage since the final minutes of Game 6 in the first-round series win against Boston.

Carolina’s first goal came on special teams, too, though this on a perfectly executed shorthanded rush off a turnover by Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba. Jordan Staal carried the puck on the left side until Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller laid out to stop a pass, but Staal lifted the puck off the ice and over Miller’s legs to a charging-in Trocheck on the right side for the 1-0 lead at 12:57 of the first.

LONG RUN

Carolina’s seven-game home winning streak is the longest in a postseason since Chicago won its first seven games in 2014, a run that ended in the conference finals.

Carolina’s seven-game home streak is the longest in franchise history for a single postseason.

SIREN SOUNDERS

Retired American soccer great Clint Dempsey sounded the pregame “storm warning” siren for the Hurricanes to take the ice.

NASCAR driver Harrison Burton sounded the siren for the first intermission, followed by North Carolina State football coach Dave Doeren — whose Wolfpack play across the parking lot from PNC Arena in Carter-Finley Stadium — for the second intermission.

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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at https://twitter.com/aaronbeardap

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Aaron Beard, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Hurricanes win Game 5, push Rangers to brink of elimination

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