Hurricanes seeking rare success vs. Rangers at MSG
The Carolina Hurricanes rarely win at Madison Square Garden, but regardless of the venue they hope their next game does not go as poorly as Monday afternoon's contest in Toronto.
After allowing five goals in the third period in an 8-6 loss to the Maple Leafs, the Hurricanes look to get back on track Friday night when they visit the New York Rangers as the teams return from the NHL's Christmas break.
Carolina heads into Friday's game with a 1-14-3 record in its last 18 road meetings with the Rangers. The Hurricanes are coming off consecutive losses after getting points in seven straight games (6-0-1) from Dec. 5-19. The streak ended with a 4-2 loss to Florida on Saturday and then came the nightmare of Monday's collapse.
The Hurricanes gave up three goals in the game's first 5:10 to the Maple Leafs but rallied to take a pair of two-goal leads. Then they allowed three of their five third-period goals in a span of 59 seconds midway through the third.
"We had the game in hand and just fell asleep," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Took a little breath and against a team that has some high-end talent, you can't do that."
Rookie Martin Necas had two goals and two assists Monday after getting one point in his previous 10 games.
Erik Haula also scored twice on Monday and Andrei Svechnikov recorded his 16th goal, but the Hurricanes lost for the first time since Dec. 6, 2011 when scoring at least six goals.
"That's probably the craziest game I've ever played professionally. It was up-and-down. We started really bad," Necas said. "Then, in the second period, we dominated. The third period, I don't really know what happened."
The Rangers posted a 4-2 win at Carolina on Nov. 7 and a 3-2 home victory over the Hurricanes on Nov. 27. Those wins were part of a 14-game stretch that saw the Rangers go 9-4-1 from Oct. 29 to Nov. 27.
Since its 3-2 win over Carolina, the Rangers are 5-6-2 in their last 13 games. The Rangers also are coming off a rough stretch of five games in which they are 1-3-1.
The Rangers dropped three straight games by allowing 15 goals in losses to Anaheim, Nashville, and Toronto from Dec. 14-20. They halted the skid with an impressive 5-1 home win over the Ducks on Sunday afternoon but were doomed by a bad third period in Monday's 5-1 loss at Philadelphia.
On Monday, Jesper Fast scored a short-handed goal in the second period but the Rangers allowed the tying goal with two seconds left before the second intermission. They then allowed four goals in the third period and wound up allowing at least five goals for the 10th time this season.
"It's really disappointing right now," center Mika Zibanejad said. "It would have been a lot nicer to go into this break with a win."
Perhaps even more distressing for New York coach David Quinn is his team's struggles on power plays of late. The Rangers were 4-for-10 on the man advantage in three games from Dec. 8-12 but in their last five games, they are scoreless in 18 power-play opportunities.
"Our power play, obviously, it's really hurt us lately," Quinn said. "Our power play had plenty of chances. We get a five-on-three and we just -- it's a team-wide problem, slowing the play down and not shooting pucks."
--Field Level Media
