RALEIGH, N.C. — It wasn’t even the game-winning goal by Artemi Panarin, 1:43 into overtime to give the Rangers a 3-2 win over Carolina and a commanding 3-0 series lead Thursday night, that was the star of this show.
The play that encapsulated exactly how special this Rangers team is and how diabolical they’ve been in confounding Carolina in this second-round playoff series, took place in the middle of the second period.
There was Chris Kreider breaking up a play in the Rangers’ defensive zone on a Hurricanes power play, busting up Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov with one hit and separating them from the puck.
A moment later, Mika Zibanejad was taking the puck across the Carolina blue line and the 33-year-old Kreider, trailing the play after his hit, blew past Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns.
That’s where Kreider took a work-of-art cross-ice feed from Zibanejad, the puck sliding between Burns and Jake Guentzel, and buried it past Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov to tie a game the Hurricanes had been dominating.
The play was special.
It was yet another special moment in what has been an unfathomably special season to date for the Rangers, Presidents’ Trophy winners and now winners of their first seven games of this magical postseason.
The Rangers beat a desperate Hurricanes team because they’ve been putting on an utter clinic on special teams.
Rangers’ Game 3 overtime win. Jason Szenes / New York Post
That the most critical play of the game — and possibly the series — came on a short-handed goal was positively fitting.
“Special teams kind of took over and that took the life right out of it for us,’’ Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’re not executing very well [on the power play], and you’ve got to give them credit — they’re doing a great job on the kill.
“We gave up that shorty [to Kreider] and I thought we just kind of got away from what we were trying to do. That kind of took the life out of the group. That’s three games in a row. Same story. That’s what changed the game.’’
It’s defined the series.
The Rangers have owned the Hurricanes not only on their own power plays but on penalty kills as well.
Carolina scored five goals in 15 power plays in their 4-1 series victory over the Islanders, but entered Thursday night’s game 0-for-10 in the first two games against the Rangers’ penalty kill.
The Hurricanes, one of the best power-play producers in the regular season, were 0-for-5 in Game 3, making them 0-for-15 in the series.
The Rangers, meanwhile, have scored three short-handed goals this postseason and allowed only two power-play goals. That makes them plus-one short-handed in seven postseason games, which is utterly unheard of.
“We had a great start and the power play took the life right out of us,’’ Brind’Amour said in a TV interview between the second and third periods. “They took advantage of it. They have some high skill out there.’’
Special skill.
Special special teams.
Consider this: The Hurricanes have outscored the Rangers, 7-6, at even strength in the series.