After a 4-1 win by the Carolina Hurricanes over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, the Hurricanes are two wins away from completing the fifth 3-0 series comeback in NHL postseason history.
Carolina got a late power play goal to survive Game 4 in Raleigh, and now the Hurricanes get a chance to play Game 6 in front of their home crowd to force a Game 7.
If they do so, they'd have a chance at MSG on Saturday to become the first team to complete a reverse sweep since the Los Angeles Kings pulled it off against the San Jose Sharks in 2014's first round. The Kings went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.
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Carolina Win 2nd Straight After Falling Behind 3-0
When the puck dropped for Game 5 on Monday night, both teams came out of the gate showing zero tentativeness, as they played at a high pace and exchanged some quality looks, with Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin in particular standing tall to keep the game tied.
Special teams have plagued Carolina in this series, and it looked like they might finally be the Hurricanes' ultimate undoing in the second, when the Canes got a power play and surrendered a shorthanded goal to Rangers captain Jacob Trouba on a 2-on-1.
It felt to observers like the Rangers might be able to hang on for a 1-0 win to seal the series with some strong defense and quality play from Shesterkin, but perhaps it felt too much like that to the team itself.
After taking the lead, New York seemed content to play in a shell, and the Hurricanes began to dominate possession and unleash wave after wave of attack.
The Canes broke through early in the third when their own captain, Jordan Staal, finished off a power move to the net with a nice finish past Shesterkin to tie the game.
The Rangers could not shift their intensity back up from protect-the-lead-mode, and Carolina kept pushing, quickly taking a 3-1 lead on goals from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jordan Martinook.
Martin Necas eventually buried an empty netter, as the Rangers were not up to the task of generating the chances required to get back into the game.
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