Rounding out their four-game regular season series, the home team came out of the gate with their foot on the gas.
Tuesday's first period between the same two clubs was very evenly contested, but tonight Carolina held New York to just three shots in the opening 20 minutes. All three came during a 1:50 segment of five-on-three time for the Rangers, where they also hit the outside of the post at least once. Outside of that, it was all Canes, including a late-period tally from Sebastian Aho.
Aho's 31st of the season was the 44th time this season that Carolina earned first blood, allowing the club to take a 1-0 lead to the second period.
In the second, the Metropolitan Division leaders were able to keep testing Igor Shesterkin, forcing him to make several big stops to keep his team from falling behind by two.
The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner came up in a big way though, eventually allowing his team to find the game-tying goal. Artemi Panarin found just an inch of space off of his defender, one-timing a setup from Mika Zibanejad past Frederik Andersen.
Moving to the third at 1-1, the two sides played very tight in the third, each registering just five shots.
However, one of those five would find twine for New York, as Adam Fox fit a perfectly placed shot above the corner of Andersen for the game-winner.
