Cole wins it for Carolina in OT

Despite all of the advanced analytics and stats favoring the home team Carolina Hurricanes in this series, the New York Rangers came out with some extra pep in their step. The Rangers outshot the Canes 12-8 in the first period and had more high danger chances.

Filip Chytil started the scoring off for the Rangers. After a Tony DeAngelo turnover, Alexis Lafreniere slides it over to Chytil to complete the 2-on-1 play.

Just a few moments later on an eerily similar looking play, Hurricanes' netminder, Antti Raanta robbed Chytil of his second goal of the game, keeping the game close:

After a relatively uneventful second period, the teams headed into the third with the ice starting to teeter back in favor of the Hurricanes. As the third period clock continued to tick, the Hurricanes reigned chance upon chance onto Vezina favorite Igor Shesterkin. After several post shots, Carolina forward Sebastian Aho tied the game on a beautiful passing play from Brady Skjei to Seth Jarvis, finally ending on Aho's stick in front of the net.

After three periods, the game headed to overtime with momentum on the side of Carolina. In didn't take much time at all for defenseman Ian Cole to end the game. Just 3:12 into OT, Cole threw a wrist shot off his back foot on Shesterkin. It appeared Shesterkin had it tracked perfectly, but unfortunately for the Rangers, Lindgren deflected the puck into his own net.

This may be building into a goaltending battle. Both netminders finished the game with impressive numbers. Shesterkin went 24-26 for a .923 save percentage. Raanta posted 27-28 with a .964 save percentage.

Game 2 is Friday night at 8pm, again in Raleigh. The Canes look to stay undefeated on home ice. The Rangers look to mimic their play in the first two periods of Game 1.

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