NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Carolina Hurricanes suffered their third one-goal loss to the New York Rangers this season, falling 1-0 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
The defeat followed a deflating 3-2 shootout loss to the Rangers in Raleigh just 24 hours earlier – a game in which Carolina led until the final three minutes of play before New York tied it and claimed the second point with Mats Zuccarello’s shootout winner.
This time, Carolina fell behind and couldn’t generate any offense whatsoever to beat goaltender Cam Talbot whose 18-save effort earned him his third victory and third shutout of the season.
The second consecutive win over the Hurricanes extended the Rangers’ current win streak to six games.
“They were similar-type games,” Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters said.
“Low-scoring games, not a lot of room. I thought we got better as we went along, similar to last night. I didn’t think we had much in the beginning, but we got better.”
Carolina goaltender Anton Khudobin faced 31 shots and made numerous exceptional saves to keep his team in contention.
However, in the end, the one shot from Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh that made it past him at 4:10 in the first period became the eventual game winner.
“We struggle to score, period,” Peters said.
“A good goaltending performance – basically you’d like to get a point, if not two out of it. Dobby’s been good for us a few times this year. Of course, we haven’t scored enough for him. It’s frustrating for sure. Just gotta’ keep playin’, findin’ a way.”
Suffering a seventh loss in their last ten games without scoring more than one goal, Peters could only offer up more work and consistency for his players to develop in order to eventually score more and win games.
“We gotta’ continue to get better,” Peters said.
“We gotta’ work. It’s a long year. You’ve got young guys who’ve gotta’ make strides. You gotta’ stay with it. You gotta’ believe. We believe in our group. We think once we get goin’ here a little bit better, get everybody in – you add a Staal; you add a Tlusty; you add Nestrasil into this lineup – it becomes a little more dangerous offensively. That’s what we’re missin’ right now.”