Believing that his team was playing its best game of the year, New York Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant resents the 2-1 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night in Raleigh to start the second-round series.
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“It is certainly a difficult setback, he dropped, at the end of the meeting, as quoted by the website of the National Hockey League. But it's done and we have to come back, then fight."
The second game between the Rangers and the Hurricanes is scheduled for Friday evening, again at the PNC Arena.
“I was very happy with our match, nevertheless continued the coach. The Hurricanes pushed hard in the first 10 minutes of the third period and we were able to weather the storm. The first two periods were perfect for us. I thought it was our best game of the year, really."
unexpected hero
After Sebastian Aho's equalizer with 2:23 to go in the third period, defenseman Ian Cole was the hero in overtime. Even he couldn't believe he had settled the debate.
“Brendan Smith threw and the puck came straight at me. I was looking to pass someone, but no one was really in a dangerous position, he described. I figured I had to shoot at goal and see what would happen. Hockey is sometimes a sport with weird leaps and it happened. It's not the prettiest goal, but we'll take it."
A second in career
On the sequence, Cole's shot was deflected by the stick of Rangers defender Ryan Lindgren before ending up in the cage defended by goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin.
Cole, who has scored just 29 goals in 670 regular season games, was only a second career goal in the playoffs. The one who won the Stanley Cup twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins, in 2016 and 2017, had previously hit the target in the fourth game of the final, against the San Jose Sharks, in the first of his two conquests. He then opened the scoring in a 3-1 win. Two goals in 104 playoff games, but two goals scored at important moments.
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