The Carolina Hurricanes had every reason to feel good about themselves in the spring of 2021-22. They rolled through the regular season with franchise-best marks in wins, 54, and points, 116, and claimed their first Metropolitan Division title. The New York Rangers were right there behind them, six points back, and the matchup set up exactly the kind of tight, defense-first second-round series the Canes expected.
That setup also came with a major blow for Carolina. Frederik Andersen’s late-season injury loomed over the entire round. Igor Shesterkin won the Vezina Trophy, but Andersen was one of three other goaltenders to receive a first-place vote, and his absence mattered in a series that stayed close early.
Game 1 looked like the kind of grind this matchup promised. The only penalties came in the opening two minutes, and the game settled into a five-on-five battle.
Filip Chytil opened the scoring after a brutal Tony DeAngelo turnover, and for most of regulation it felt like Shesterkin and the Rangers were headed toward a shutout. Then ABC’s Sean McDonough mentioned the shutout, and Sebastian Aho made him pay for it.
Aho buried a rebound with 2:24 left after hitting the post about 20 seconds earlier, and Ian Cole finished the comeback in early overtime to give Carolina the opener.
Game 2 stayed tight, but the Hurricanes found another way to break through. Former Ranger Brendan Smith scored a short-handed goal late in the second period, Antti Raanta stopped all 21 shots he faced, and Aho added an empty-netter in a 2-0 win that sent Carolina to New York up 2-0.
The series turned once it hit Madison Square Garden. Games 3 and 4 went the Rangers’ way, and both looked like the sort of nights that had haunted the Hurricanes there before.
Mika Zibanejad scored on the power play in Game 3, Chris Kreider added another, and although Nino Niederreiter slipped a backhand past Shesterkin to make it interesting, New York held on 3-1. Game 4 was even more comfortable for the Rangers, who took a 4-1 win behind Shesterkin’s 30 saves to even the series.
Carolina got back in front in Game 5. Vincent Trocheck scored while the Hurricanes were shorthanded, New York answered on the power play before the first period ended, and Teuvo Teravainen put Carolina back ahead on the power play. Andrei Svechnikov then sealed it with a breakaway, leaving the Hurricanes one win from advancing and one more trip to New York still hanging out there.
That final trip changed everything. Tyler Motte scored first in Game 6, and the Rangers quickly piled on.
Zibanejad scored in his fourth straight game, Chytil added another early in the second, and even after Brady Skjei got Carolina on the board, Chytil struck again to restore a three-goal cushion. Trocheck’s goal before the second intermission briefly gave the Hurricanes a chance to build something, but Artemi Panarin answered on the power play and sent the series back to Raleigh for Game 7.
Game 7 unraveled fast. The Rangers scored twice on the power play in the first period, and the season started slipping away almost immediately.
Raanta exited late in the second period, Pyotr Kochetkov came in, and Ryan Strome scored seconds later to make it a runaway. Trocheck and Max Domi scored for Carolina in the third, but the damage was done.
New York closed out a 6-2 win in Raleigh and ended the Hurricanes’ season.
For a team that had looked so strong for so much of the spring, the final two games were a brutal finish. The Hurricanes’ defense, which had been one of the best in the league, didn’t look like itself.
The Rangers found scoring from all over, and Carolina never really matched it. It was a series that started with promise and ended with the Hurricanes’ only Game 7 loss in team history.
In Other News...
How Tampa Bay Became A Familiar Hurricanes Playoff Frustration
The Hurricanes keep running into Tampa Bay at moments when the margins feel razor-thin, and the 2021 second-round series was another reminder of how little room there is to breathe in the postseason. Carolina pushed the Lightning in a string of tight games, with goals from Brayden Point, Barclay Goodrow and Sebastian Aho helping define a matchup that stayed competitive deep into each night. Alex Nedeljkovic and Petr Mrazek both had to withstand heavy pressure, which only underscored how closely these teams matched up on the ice.
Even so, the outcome fit an uncomfortable pattern for Carolina from that stretch, with Tampa Bay again finding a way to finish the series. For the Hurricanes, the frustration was not just losing to a powerhouse, but losing in a way that kept suggesting they were close enough to make it interesting and not quite able to turn that into the final result. [Read more 🡒]
Hurricanes Just Sent Another Message About What Lenovo Center Has Become
The buzz around Lenovo Center has become impossible to ignore, and the next ticketing milestone only reinforces it. The Hurricanes have already sold out all of their season ticket plans for the 2026-27 regular season, including full-season, half-season and quarter-season options, a sign that demand around the team has stayed at a premium well beyond a single playoff push.
Individual game tickets will still be available in limited numbers starting August 20, but even that release comes against a backdrop of remarkable consistency. Carolina has now sold out 168 straight regular-season and playoff games dating back to Feb. 24, 2023, a run that says as much about the atmosphere in the building as it does about the team on the ice. [Read more 🡒]
Hurricanes Set The Standard As Cap Debate Shifts To Montreal
Dom Luszczyszyns latest NHL Contract Efficiency rankings offered a familiar reminder of why Carolina keeps showing up in these conversations. The Hurricanes landed at No. 1, with Montreal right behind them, underscoring how much value both organizations have squeezed out of their roster-building approach. For Carolina, it is another nod to a front office that has made smart cap management part of the teams identity.
Montreals rise in the same rankings is the part worth watching for the Hurricanes audience, because it suggests a club with real flexibility and momentum under GM Kent Hughes. The Canadiens have already committed long term to several key young players, and that structure leaves room for more roster moves as the summer unfolds. Former NHL executive Pierre McGuire has also singled out Hughes for his contract work, which only adds to the sense that Montreal is becoming the kind of efficiently run team Carolina has long been measured against. [Read more 🡒]