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 "There was desperation," center Derick Brassard said.
That attitude paid off, as Brassard scored his third goal of the
season midway through the third period to tie the game, and right
winger Rick Nash scored the only goal of the shootout to give the
Rangers a much-needed 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes at
Madison Square Garden.
New York (2-3-0) halted a three-game losing streak.
"Coming to the rink every day and losing, it's not fun," Brassard
said. "The last couple days were tough. I think we showed a lot of
character coming into the third like that. We had a really good
second period, but when we came into the third period, I think there
was desperation."
The Hurricanes (0-2-2) held a 1-0 lead after the second period on
the strength of left winger Chris Terry's third goal of the season
and goaltender Anton Khudobin stopping the first 20 shots he faced.
Terry's goal was somewhat fluky as well, as his shot from the right
point deflected off Rangers right winger Lee Stempniak, then the
knob of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist's stick before sneaking under
the crossbar.
It was the only goal allowed by Lundqvist, who made 29 saves and
stopped all three attempts in the shootout.
Lundqvist allowed 12 goals on 51 shots over his previous two games,
so this was a bounce-back performance he was desperate to have.
"We've been doing a lot of good things the last couple games
offensively, so for us to come back to our structure, I think it
helps me a lot to focus on what I have to do," Lundqvist said. "It's
a combination there, and I felt like we were on the same page.
Knowing they were missing a lot of their top players, I think
mentally we had some confidence coming into this game, but at the
same time, we had some work to do."
The Hurricanes, who are depleted by injury, earned points in two
consecutive games despite being winless on the season. Defenseman
Jay Harrison is choosing to accentuate the positive.
"I thought we played a pretty strong 60-minute game," Harrison said.
"I mean, we showed some resiliency there and held onto it. We kept
pucks deep, we cycled the puck, we generated some offense, we played
tight defensively away from the puck as well. That's two games in a
row we put back-to-back efforts together, but we're probably going
to look back and see some positive things about it -- not the result
-- but we're building towards that (and) we'll take the things we
did really well and look forward."
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Khudobin was the biggest reason the Hurricanes managed a point. He
made 33 saves in all and was only beaten by a shot from defenseman
Dan Girardi that hit right winger Mats Zuccarello before Brassard
tipped it home.
"He was solid," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said of Khudobin. "We
talked about winning a 2-1 game, and it was available for us.
Obviously, we fell one goal short in regulation and then in
overtime, but Anton played really well."
The only puck that eluded him in the shootout was off the stick of
Nash. Along with his goal in the breakaway contest, Nash leads the
league with six goals this season. He is perhaps the biggest reason
the Rangers have two wins instead of zero.
"When your third shooter is Nash, we are pretty confident," Brassard
said. "He's hot right now. ... He's been really good for us, and we
are going to need him to be good for the rest of the season."
NOTES: Hurricanes D Andrej Sekera (upper body) and D John-Michael
Liles (upper body) did not play Thursday night. ... Other key
Carolina injuries include C Eric Staal (upper body), C Jordan Staal
(leg), RW Jeff Skinner (concussion) and RW Patrick Dwyer (groin).
... Hurricanes C Brody Sutter made his NHL debut. ... Rangers D Matt
Hunwick replaced D Michael Kostka, who was a healthy scratch after
making his debut against the New York Islanders on Tuesday. ...
Thursday's game marked the Rangers' 134th consecutive sellout at
Madison Square Garden. ... The Rangers were without C Derek Stepan
(leg) and D Dan Boyle (hand).
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