Rangers Vs. Hurricanes Recap: Rangers Defeat Hurricanes 4-1 For Second Straight Win

Finally. A winning streak.

The New York Rangers have won their second straight game after defeating the Carolina Hurricanes tonight by a final score of 4-1. After alternating wins and losses for the last dozen games, the Rangers finally broke the mold and strung together consecutive wins. This one came in dominating fashion, where J.T. Miller had one heck of a game, while Henrik Lundqvist was just as good at the other end.

Much like last game against the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers got off to quite a start in the first period and took it to the Carolina Hurricanes. They were able to generate 17 shots on goal through 20 minutes, and as a result, they grabbed the games first goal at 14:01. The play started with Ryan McDonagh jumping the passing lane and intercepting the stretch pass by John-Michael Liles. With McDonagh coming through the neutral zone with speed, he flew past the Hurricanes defense and ripped a hard shot on net.

The shot wound up fooling Eddie Lack and McDonagh went bar down with a snipe to give the Rangers the late 1-0 lead. The Rangers kept the pressure up in the offensive zone, and a few minutes later, Keith Yandle doubled up the Rangers lead. Kevin Hayes deserves a ton of praise after ripping the puck from Noah Hanifin and getting the puck behind the net to Oscar Lindberg.

While all that was going on, Keith Yandle slipped down the middle of the ice and came in undetected by the Hurricanes defenders. Lindberg finished it off with a beautiful centering feed and Yandle redirected the puck past Lack to make it a 2-0 game. With a strong period under their belt, the Rangers looked to carry over their strong play to the second period, and they did just that.

However, the Hurricanes got a lucky break after a missed hi-sticking call went undetected, and the Hurricanes took full advantage. Joakim Nordstrom was able to create some space and ripped a shot past Henrik Lundqvist after receiving a feed from Andrej Nestrasil. It was an unfortunate break for the Rangers, but they quickly put the goal behind them.

A few minutes after the Nordstrom goal, J.T. Miller went beast mode on the Hurricanes and scored two goals within a span of 2:10. The first goal came off of a broken play off to the side of the net where Miller was able to dig out the loose puck. With a ton of bodies in front of Lack, Miller ripped a quick shot on net and wound up beating the goaltender just under the crossbar.

Moments later, Miller notched his second of the game after stripping the puck from Jaccob Slavin and deking Lack out of his shorts on a breakaway. That quick surge by Miller swung the momentum right back in the Rangers favor and they went into the second intermission with a huge 4-1 lead. That would be all the Rangers needed to hang on, and they shutdown the Hurricanes all throughout the third period.

There was a scary situation early on in the third period, though, with Rick Nash taking a hard spill in the corner and being helped off the ice. Nash wasn't able to put any weight on his right leg after crashing into the boards, and limped down the tunnel a short time after. Thankfully, Nash came back later on in the period and didn't appear to show any ill effects of the collision.

With two straight wins under their belt, the Rangers will look to make it three in a row on Sunday afternoon against the Ottawa Senators.