Not even Igor Shesterkin could save the Rangers.
The rookie goalie had provided a spark upon his arrival during the regular season, and while the Rangers looked more like that team for two periods Tuesday night, Shesterkin’s postseason debut still wasn’t enough to extend their stay in Toronto.
Instead the Rangers got swept away by the more experienced Hurricanes, falling 4-1 in Game 3 to bow out of the Stanley Cup qualifiers at Scotiabank Arena.
“We looked like a hockey team tonight — we actually looked like the Rangers for two periods tonight,” coach David Quinn said. “It was good to see our team kind of arrive at some point in this series, but just way to little, way too late.”
Former Ranger Brady Skjei set the Hurricanes’ winning goal in motion, firing a shot from the point that Warren Foegele deflected past Shesterkin to take a 2-1 lead at 5:07 of the third period.
Sebastian Aho added a highlight-reel insurance strike midway through the period, stealing the puck from Jacob Trouba and dangling around Tony DeAngelo to get off a backhander, before adding an empty-netter in the final minute.
So a season that featured encouraging second-half strides from a young team to put the Rangers in a position to even get to Toronto after COVID-19 interrupted play ended in equally discouraging fashion. They struggled to unlock their offense, scoring just four goals in three games against a team that reached the Eastern Conference finals last year.
“Obviously came back through training camp, tried to find back to that feeling we had before the break,” Mika Zibanejad said. “We worked hard to try to prepare ourselves as best we could.
“Honestly, it just sucks that it’s done. Just an empty feeling right now.”
Shesterkin (27 saves) had watched the first two games from the stands, deemed unfit to play, as Henrik Lundqvist stepped between the pipes and allowed seven goals on 71 shots. He looked at ease in his first taste of the postseason and made a handful of strong saves early in the third period to keep it a 1-1 game before the Hurricanes finally broke through.
“Igor played well,” Quinn said. “Certainly our goaltending wasn’t our problem in this series.”
It was the Rangers’ lack of offense that burst their bubble. Quinn had asked for more from the Rangers’ top six forwards and Chris Kreider delivered one big-time goal 12 seconds into the second period to give the Rangers their first lead of the series, 1-0.
It lasted just over three minutes, though, as Marc Staal lost his stick on a long shift and didn’t get a replacement from any of his forwards, opening the door for Teuvo Teravainen to tie it at 3:18.
James Reimer got his first start of the series in net and rose to the occasion for the Hurricanes, recording 37 saves, including a handful of huge ones to keep the game tied heading into the third period.
The series had started off-script for the Rangers — from suddenly not having Shesterkin for the first two games to losing Jesper Fast when he got crushed by Skjei on his first shift of Game 1 — and they never fully recovered.
“We let one minute at the beginning of Game 1 affect two games,” Kreider said. “I did personally. We thought the playoffs were a blood sport and we were out there running around for a hit instead of playing the puck-possession style we play.”
Instead of rediscovering the groove they were in ahead of the season being suspended on March 11, the Rangers went three-and-out in Toronto with a disappointing early exit.
“The better team won the series,” Quinn said. “Let’s just call a spade a spade. You play three games and they unfold the way they did, the best team won.”