Canes hang on to beat Rangers 6-3, win third straight

Now that’s how you start a hockey game.

The Carolina Hurricanes absolutely dominated the New York Rangers for the opening two periods of play Friday night in PNC Arena, holding on to win 6-3 and regain the lead in the Metro standings.

The Canes got two goals in an overwhelmingly good first period, as Vincent Trocheck scored on the power play with Seth Jarvis making it 2-0. Carolina came out in the second period blazing too, as Jesper Fast, Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter all scored, with Tony DeAngelo adding a sixth late in the third period on the power play.

DeAngelo, playing against his former team, also had two assists. Svechnikov got his 100th NHL assist in the game, while Aho got his 200th.

Chris Kreider and Greg McKegg scored for the Rangers in the third period, the only falters in a 20-save effort from Frederik Andersen.

The first period was domination for the Hurricanes, who went into the first intermission up 2-0 on the scoreboard and up 16-0 in scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.

The Canes dominated the puck and chances early in the game, but just couldn’t quite find that scoring touch through the first 12 minutes or so.

That changed as Carolina got the game’s first power play, which paid off thanks to a point blast from DeAngelo through traffic that was tipped in by Trocheck to put the Canes up 1-0.

Carolina made it 2-0 later in the opening frame, as Aho made a great play to shake off Adam Fox and deliver a perfect pass to Jarvis, who slotted it past Georgiev.

The first period came to an end with the Hurricanes up 2-0 and dominating across the board. Of the Canes’ 16 scoring chances, 11 were high danger and the Canes were up 2.06-0.19 in expected goals.

The momentum of the first certainly carried over into the second for the Hurricanes, who made it 3-0 on a linkup of two former Rangers. The Canes ran a nice set play off an offensive-zone faceoff win, as Fast fed DeAngelo who gave it back to Fast for a blast from the point.

The Rangers got one back on the power play after a double minor against Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who came to the defense of Teuvo Teravainen after a hard hit was delivered by Barclay Goodrow. Teravainen left the ice for a while after hit, but returned later in the period before sitting out the third.

With Kotkaniemi and Josh Leivo (serving for Kotkaniemi) in the box, New York almost immediately capitalized on a phenomenally well-executed goal from Zibanejad, who blasted home a great pass from Artemi Panarin.

Teravainen returned to the ice in the final minutes of the second period, and he made something happen on his very first shift. Teravainen collected the puck off a faceoff and fired a shot on Georgiev, which was cleaned up by Aho to make it 4-1.

A few minutes later Andrei Svechnikov made an incredibly heady play behind the net to set up Niederreiter to make it 5-1. Svechnikov got the puck behind the goal and hinted at his signature lacrosse move, which drew two defenders too him.

He waited for a gap and hit Niederreiter in front of the crease, who scored off the great assist. The assist was the 100th of Svechnikov’s NHL career.

To say things were going well for the Canes through two periods would be quite the understatement:

The Rangers got one back early in the third period, again on the power play, capitalizing on a hooking call against Jarvis. Fox threw a puck in on net from the point that found the stick of Kreider, falling to Kreider’s feet for the finish.

And New York got another back to make it 5-3 just over a minute later, as the former Cane McKegg got a rebound and put it in.

Rod Brind’Amour used his timeout after the two quick Rangers goals, giving his group some animated instruction on the bench.

The timeout did its job, as the Canes seemed to settle back into the groove of things after New York came back to make it a game.

The Hurricanes got the dagger from DeAngelo on the power play in the final minutes, as he blasted a goal from the point against his former team. Aho got his 200th NHL assist on the goal.

Carolina will be back in action Saturday night in New Jersey against the Devils.