NEW YORK – Vincent Trocheck couldn't describe the feeling when he finally scored in the second overtime to give the New York Rangers another big win.
Trocheck scored a power-play goal off a rebound at 7:24 of the second extra period and the Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.
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“I don't know. I'll watch it and let you know tomorrow,” Trocheck said. “Typically when those games go into overtime, double overtime, any team could win those games.”
Alexis Lafreniere scored twice, Chris Kreider also had a power-play goal and Artemi Panarin added three assists for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin stopped a season-high 54 shots.
“Igor played an Igor-esque type game. He was outstanding, kept us in the game,” Trocheck said. “It's tough to beat our team when he's making saves like he was tonight.”
The Rangers won their sixth straight in the playoffs, and eighth straight dating to the regular season. New York got its first overtime playoff win since Game 7 of the first round in 2022 against Pittsburgh.
Jake Guentzel scored twice, Dmitry Orlov also scored and Sebastian Aho had three assists for the Hurricanes, who have lost three of their last four — including two in double overtime. Frederik Andersen finished with 35 saves.
“It was a hard fought game,” Carolina's Jordan Staal said. “This one is going to sting but we’ve got to find a way to get it done at home and move on from there.”
The series shifts to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the next two games, with Game 3 on Thursday night.
The Rangers were 2 for 7 on the power play, scoring twice with the advantage for the second straight game against the league's top penalty-killing team. After finishing third on the power play, New York is converting at 40% (10 for 25) in the playoffs, including 4 for 9 in this series.
“We're confident for sure,” Trocheck said. “We do expect to score. Obviously it's not going to happen every single time. We feel as a unit the team relies on us to score on the power play, especially so far in this playoffs. Special teams has been so big.”
The Rangers led the league with 28 comeback wins and got their third of the playoffs — first when trailing in the third period.
“As the game went on I thought we stayed with it, maybe even got better through the overtimes," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "It was a roller coaster a little bit, so for the guys to stay in there, locked in and focused like that, it was a pretty big effort.”
Shesterkin made a kick save on Martin Necas 1 1/2 minutes into the second overtime and a pad save on Staal in close about 30 seconds later. At the other end, Andersen made a stellar save on a shot by Panarin.
The Hurricanes, who finished 0 for 5 on the power play, got an advantage when Panarin was called for hooking at 3:28. They managed just one shot.
The Rangers then got their seventh power play of the night and Mika Zibanejad sent a shot in front from the left side boards. It bounced off Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns and Trocheck knocked in the rebound to extend his goal-scoring streak to five games and end the NHL's longest playoff game of the postseason.
Kreider scored his 43rd career postseason goal — most in franchise history — and 70th point — third-most behind Brian Leetch (89) and Mark Messier (80). The Rangers had a power play when Brady Skjei was called for tripping with 1:38 left in regulation. However, the Hurricanes had the best chances as Shesterkin — who had 17 saves in the third period — made a nice stop on Seth Jarvis on a short-handed, odd-man rush.
Trailing 2-1 after 20 minutes, the Rangers tied it at 7:32 of the second as Lafreniere redirected a pass in front from Adam Fox for his second of the game.
Guentzel gave the Hurricanes their second lead of the night with a one-timer in the slot off a pass from Aho from the left corner with 1:42 remaining in the middle period.
Lafreniere got a pass from K’Andre Miller and fired a shot into the top left corner from the left circle to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead with 9:07 left in the opening period.
The Hurricanes tied it with 4:53 remaining in the first as Guentzel tipped a one-timer by Aho through traffic for his second of the playoffs.
The teams were skating four on four in the final minute of the opening period when Orlov tipped Brady Skjei’s point shot past Shesterkin with 5.4 seconds left to take the lead.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.ap)news.com/hub/NHL