Filip Chytil scored twice in the second period and Igor Shesterkin made 37 saves as the host New York Rangers staved off elimination again and defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 Saturday night in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference second-round series.
The Rangers won their sixth straight home game since taking a triple-overtime loss in the first-round opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins on May 3. New York also won its fourth straight elimination game to force a seventh game Monday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Tyler Motte opened the scoring 7:22 into the first period and Mika Zibanejad scored in his fourth straight game when he netted a power-play goal 2:29 later. Chytil scored twice in a span of 3:23 in the second period, both times giving the Rangers three-goal leads, and Artemi Panarin scored during a 5-on-3 in the third.
Shesterkin also became the fifth goaltender in NHL history to collect two assists in a playoff game. He had the secondary assists on both Chytil goals, and joined Pekka Rinne (2017), Jose Theodore (2004), Tom Barrasso (1993) and Grant Fuhr (1991) as the only goalies in NHL history with two assists in a playoff game.
Brady Skjei and Vincent Trocheck scored for Carolina, which is 0-6 in road games this postseason and has been outscored 26-10 in those games.
Carolina goalie Antti Raanta made 10 saves before being pulled after Chytil’s first goal. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 10 shots in his third appearance of the playoffs.
After Shesterkin stopped Sebastian Aho on a breakaway, Motte made it 1-0 when his soft wrist shot from the middle of the slot fluttered past Raanta’s left arm.
Zibanejad scored on a soft wrist shot from the lower edge of the right circle 37 seconds after Carolina defenseman Brendan Smith was whistled for high-sticking Alexis Lafreniere.
The Rangers had a pair of 2-on-1s during the same shift and eventually took a 3-0 lead. Chytil missed the net with 17:08 remaining, but after a giveaway by the Hurricanes’ Jesperi Kotkaniemi near the neutral zone, Adam Fox, got the puck to Chytil, who made it 3-0 by lifting a shot from the left side into the top corner of the net.
After Skjei scored on a shot from between the circles by Shesterkin with 14:55 remaining, Chytil made it 4-1 less than two minutes later when he lifted a backhander from the right circle over Kochetkov after spinning around Smith in the right corner.
The Hurricanes got within 4-2 when Trocheck’s backhander caromed off the right knee of New York defenseman Ryan Lindgren and past Shesterkin with 7:13 left in the second.
–Field Level Media
