Sebastian Aho scored twice in the third period while James Reimer was strong in net to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 4-1 on Tuesday night and sweep the Stanley Cup qualifier series.
Warren Foegele scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period for the Hurricanes, redirecting a shot from the point by Brady Skjei to beat rookie Igor Shesterkin at 5:07 in the third. Then Aho followed with a highlight-reel goal about 51/2 minutes later, taking the puck from Rangers defenceman Jacob Trouba along the boards and skating in on Tony DeAngelo to backhand the puck past Shesterkin as he went to his knees.
Aho added an empty-netter late to seal it, with the Hurricanes sweeping the best-of-five series after losing all four regular-season meetings against the Rangers.
Reimer had a huge part in the win, finishing with 37 saves that included a couple of big stops during a wild second-period sequence.
That included Reimer — who got the start after Petr Mrazek won the first two games of the series — stopping Brendan Lemieux as he skated in toward the crease. He was unable to control the puck as Carolina defencemen Jaccob Slavin and Sami Vatanen dove into the crease to clog the net, with Vatanen managing to make his own diving stop of Lemieux’s follow-up shot with his left shoulder.
That bought time for Reimer to get to his feet, then make another in-close stop on Filip Chytil near the crease by extending his right glove.
Teuvo Teravainen also scored for Carolina early in the second period, a quick answer to a goal by New York’s Chris Kreider for a 1-0 lead that was the Rangers’ first of the post-season.
Shesterkin, a 24-year-old rookie who went 10-2 after making his NHL debut in January, finished with 27 saves in his post-season debut after being unavailable in the series’ first two games.
With the loss, the Rangers are the first team eliminated from the NHL’s expanded playoff rounds but are also in the running to claim the No. 1 overall draft pick in Monday’s second draft lottery. One of the eight eliminated playoff teams will claim the chance to select Quebec junior Alexis Lafrenière, the projected top pick.