Rangers head home for Game 6, trail in series

In Raleigh, Antti Raanta made 16 saves and the Hurricanes defeated the New York Rangers, 3-1, on Thursday night.

Carolina leads the series, 3-2.

Game 6 is in New York on Saturday.

“Everyone played well. It’s kind of the game we’ve been waiting for,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We were playing OK, but tonight was good all the way around, more how we want to play.”

Mika Zibanejad was the lone striker for the Rangers, he scored off the power play to knot the game, 1-1, in the first period.

“I didn’t think we played our game at all,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought we were reaching with sticks all night instead of finishing checks with the body like we did the other nights. Obviously, to me it was the worst game in the five games in this series. They pretty well dominated that game tonight.”

Vincent Trocheck scored to give the Canes a 1-0 lead in the opening period.

“It landed right on my stick,” Trocheck said. “I think they were going so fast that they just skated by me, and I had a little bit of time so I could skate with it. The pass that Jordan made was incredible.”

Teuvo Teravainen hit off the power play to give Carolina a 2-1 lead in the middle frame.

“He’s a sneaky, skilled player,” Brind’Amour said of Teravainen. “You see it on that goal. That’s a great catch-and-shoot that not many guys can do at that pace and put it in the right spot.”

Andrei Svechnikov scored in the third period for the 3-1 final.

“That’s just the type of game we play,” Trocheck said. “We play a hard-nosed game, we play smart and above them. That’s how we played all the regular season. We kind of got away from that the first couple games of this series, but when we play that way and we play our game, I like our chances against anybody.”

Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves in the Rangers loss.

“We’ve got to win one game,” Rangers forward Chris Kreider said. “That’s our focus. It’s a little cliché, but there are a lot of things we can take from that game and do a better job of. Learn from that and win one game. Win the first shift, win the first period and go from there.”