Raleigh, N.C. – Thursday night’s hero was one of the goats Saturday night for the Rangers.
Inside PNC Arena, filled with frustration two nights ago, it was Artemi Panarin who struck a dagger into the Hurricanes’ hearts, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime for a 3-0 series lead for the Rangers.
It happened when Panarin stood before his teammates in the cramped PNC Arena visitors’ dressing room at the end of regulation and urged them not to be discouraged by the fact that Carolina had tied the game at six goals each and To remain “flexible” in OT.
The Rangers suffered a 4-3 loss to Carolina in Game 4 at PNC Arena on Saturday night, coming back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game 3-3 in the third period, which quickly became Changed to an extent. Different story for them – and especially for Panarin.
The Hurricanes were already up 1-0 on Evgeni Kuznetsov’s unassisted goal just 1:51 minutes into the game, which proved to be the Rangers’ first punch to the chin, as Panarin was a little late in getting to the puck. , former Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo approached. blue line.
This led to Stephen Noesen’s goal, with Rangers defenseman Jacob Trueba unable to clear Carolina’s Jordan Staal from the goal crease, giving the Hurricanes a 2–0 lead at 6:33 of the first period.
Carolina center Martin Necas took the free puck and shot over Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin and Noeson buried the rebound.
After Noesen’s goal saw the Rangers cut Carolina’s lead to 2–1 with 1:33 to go, Panarin appeared to get on the ice a little late for his shift and then took a bad angle on Hurricanes center Jake Guentzel behind the Rangers net. . ,
Moments later, Guentzel passed the puck to Sebastian Aho in the slot, while Panarin was now saved by Aho in front of the net and Aho beat Shesterkin over his left shoulder to give Carolina a commanding 3–1 lead.
It was the first time this season that Rangers trailed by more than one goal.
“We didn’t play well on defense,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said in a TV interview with TNT between the first and second periods. “You make a mistake early and (the puck) is in the back of the net. You don’t pick up defensively and it’s in the back of the net.
To be clear: Panarin was hardly the only reason the Rangers lost Game 4 and now must try to close out this series on Monday night at the Garden to avoid another trip to North Carolina.
But, two nights after making the difference in the Rangers’ Game 3 victory, he played a role in preparing the Rangers for early adversity – even if those were subtle mistakes on his part.
“We dug ourselves a hole early,” Laviolette said after the game. “The (chances) we gave up were pretty noisy. We have to come out a little brighter than that. There were some things defensively I thought we could have done a little better in the first period.”
Asked specifically about Panarin’s errors, Laviolette, who never calls out his players publicly, deflected any blame.
The defensive coach said, “Listen, they have a good team too, they have strong players too.” “(Panarin) just managed to get caught on the wrong side of (Guentzel on the Aho goal) and you lose him for a second and … it’s just not (Panarin). “We could have been a little tighter in what we were doing, whether it was puck decisions or closing coverages a little quicker.”
The last thing the Rangers wanted to do in Game 4 was allow the Hurricanes to get any hope early in the game.
“We wanted to rely on consistent pressure, and we had to do that in the first period or we wouldn’t have played anymore,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour told TNT during a second-period intermission.
The poor start by Panarin, who was not made available to reporters after the game, was somewhat ironic when you listen to the words of Carolina center Martin Necas before the game when he was asked about the Rangers’ leading scorer.
“He’s one of those guys that, like last game (Thursday), you hardly noticed him the whole game and he played two plays and the game was over,” Necas said. “With these players, you have to know exactly where they are and if you don’t know, that’s what happens.
On this night, it was the Storm that overcame Panarin, not the other way around.
