RALEIGH, N.C. — With Thanksgiving approaching, the Rangers can count their blessings to find themselves just above the .500 mark.
The Blueshirts secured a 4-2 triumph against the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes on Wednesday night, nudging their record to a modest 12-11-2. This win arrives just in time for the Nov. 27 benchmark, marking roughly 30 percent of the season in the books.
Despite the Hurricanes battling their own injury woes, this victory is one the Rangers can take pride in.
Twenty-five games into the 2025-26 season, the team should feel fortunate not to be positioned lower in the NHL standings than they currently are.
The season so far has been tumultuous, marred by inconsistent performances, a disappointing home record at Madison Square Garden, and a slew of injuries impacting their game.
Yet, on Wednesday night at Lenovo Center, the Rangers managed to overcome the formidable Hurricanes, steering themselves toward stability rather than disaster.
Behind a two-point effort from Artemi Panarin, the Rangers handed the Hurricanes their third regulation loss of the season on home ice. They were outshot and under siege at times through 60 minutes, but the Rangers generated timely scoring and let goalie Igor Shesterkin handle the rest with 35 saves.
Somehow, the Rangers emerged from a lopsided opening 20 minutes with a 1-0 lead.
Carolina limited the visitors to just four shots on goal in the first period, but Noah Laba found the back of the net on what was the team’s second shot at the 16:53 mark.
From the right faceoff circle, Laba picked the far corner on Canes goalie Frederik Andersen to snap a nine-game stretch without a goal.
The Rangers struggled to stay out of the penalty box in the second period.
While one or two were questionable, the Rangers were called for three consecutive penalties and, as a result, weren’t able to find any rhythm at five-on-five.
A Shayne Gostisbehere one-timer on the Canes power play evened the score at one-all just over five minutes into the middle frame.
Toward the end of the second, Panarin blasted a bullet one-timer by Andersen to regain the lead for his team.
The Rangers then captured their largest lead of the night just 45 seconds into the third period, when Vincent Trocheck put one in from between the circles for the 3-1 advantage.
Seth Jarvis kept his team in it by responding with his 12th goal of the season. Going top corner on Shesterkin, Jarvis cut the Rangers lead back to one with just under 11 minutes remaining in regulation.
