Jack Roslovic haunts Rangers with tie-breaking winner

Jack Roslovic scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:28 remaining in the second period during the waning seconds of a four-minute power play as the visiting Carolina Hurricanes ended a five-game road losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday.

Roslovic, who last year scored three goals in 19 games for the Rangers after being acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets, drew the double-minor when he was high-sticked in the mouth by Alexis Lafreniere to draw blood. After getting his teeth fixed during most of the power play, Roslovic returned and scored with three seconds left in the advantage.

He cut down the middle of the slot, slipped past New York defenseman Chad Ruhwedel to reach the net and re-directed Dmitry Orlov’s pass from the left side past goalie Igor Shesterkin.

William Carrier scored the tying goal a little over five minutes before Roslovic’s tally as the Hurricanes won their first road game since beating the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 20. The Hurricanes were 0-4-1 in their previous five road games.

Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 22 saves and secondary assists on Roslovic’s goal and Sebastian Aho’s empty-net tally. He also was aided by a defense that blocked 14 shots and limited the Rangers to one shot on goal during four power plays.

Jimmy Vesey scored 17 seconds into the game, but the Rangers were unable to win consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 14-19. New York lost for the 12th time in 16 games (4-12-0) and fell to 2-6-0 in their past eight.

Shesterkin made 28 saves for the Rangers, who scored on the opening shift and mustered little else offensively in their fourth straight home loss.

Vesey finished off a give-and-go with Chad Ruhwedel by slipping past Orlov and re-directing a pass over Kochetkov’s stick. It was New York’s fastest goal since Mika Zibanejad scored 10 seconds in on Dec. 14, 2019.

The Hurricanes spent most of the second in their offensive zone and tied the game by crashing the net with 10:46 remaining. After a shot by Jaccob Slavin rang off the post, Shersterkin could not control the rebound to set up a faceoff and Carrier beat Braden Schneider to the loose puck and chipped it in.

–Field Level Media