The Carolina Hurricanes‘ Jekyll and Hyde postseason reached an insane milestone Thursday. With a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers at PNC Arena, home teams have now won all 12 of Carolina’s games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tied for the longest streak in NHL history.
Carolina, which now leads the Rangers 3-2 in their Stanley Cup semifinals series, is 7-0 at home this postseason, which is a franchise record. The Hurricanes also lead the NHL in wins and goal differential (+17) at home.
In Thursday’s game, Carolina held New York to a mere 17 shots to match a season low. Carolina goalie Antti Raanta saved 16 of those shots for a 94.1% save percentage, while New York’s Igor Shesterkin collected 31 saves and a 91.2% save percentage. Vincent Trocheck, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov scored in each period for Carolina. Mika Zibanejad scored New York’s lone goal at 17:06 of the first period.
The Hurricanes beat the Rangers 2-1 and 2-0 in Games 1 and 2, respectively, at PNC Arena. But at Madison Square Garden, Carolina lost Games 3 and 4 by a combined five goals.
Road struggles hampered Carolina in the first round as well. The Hurricanes lost all three of their road games against the Boston Bruins and were outscored by eight in the series.
It’s been a bizarre identity shift for Carolina, a team that excelled away from Raleigh, N.C. during the regular season. The Hurricanes went 29-8-4 at PNC Arena in 2021-22, the fifth best home record in the NHL. But Carolina largely earned the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed by finishing with a 25-12-4 road record, tied with the Calgary Flames for the second best in the league. Only the Washington Capitals had a better road record at 25-10-6.
Game 6 between the Carolina Hurricanes is set for Saturday at Madison Square Garden. If the Hurricanes pull off their first road win of the postseason, they’d reach their first conference final since 2019.
