Apparently the bad feelings between the Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes left over from their last match wasn’t forgotten as both teams racked up the penalty minutes in a fight filled first period. After settling some old scores, the Southeast Division leading ‘Canes recovered from a sloppy opening frame and rallied to defeat the Rangers 3-1 at the RBC Center; it was their third win in four games.

For the Rangers (their sixth consecutive road loss), it was a great start even with some questionable officiating going against them. But in the end, it was more of the same for the consistently inconsistent Blueshirts, who still cannot find the solution to their offensive ineptitude this late in the season. Again, they outshot their opponent (35-27), and couldn’t sustain their attack. Rod Brind’Amour got the game-winner for Carolina and Cam Ward was extremely strong in the net with 34 saves.

When Brendan Shanahan beat Ward at 1:02 with a power-play goal off a beautiful feed from Scott Gomez, the Rangers seemed to be on their way. After all, the Hurricanes are the second worst team in the NHL in goals allowed. But Carolina wasn’t about to let the Rangers get away. The intensity was high and the testosterone was flowing right from the start. In fact, both Sean Avery and Scott Walker were penalized before the puck was dropped.

Wade Brookbank and Colton Orr renewed their rivalry early in the first and had a sequel before the period ended. After their first squabble, the game almost got out of hand because Walker slammed Gomez into the boards with a cheap shot that went unpenalized. Not only did the refs miss the call, but the Rangers were given an extra minor after the ensuing melee calmed down.

To make matters worse, right after that bad decision, the refs further aggravated the situation by calling Shanahan for a phantom hooking penalty that video review could not justify. Fortunately for the Blueshirts, they killed off the five-on-three man advantage. Six minutes later, Jagr was hooked and was called for diving to negate the power-play; it was yet another ridiculous call. Though every decision went to the home team, the Rangers managed to get out of the period with a 1-0 lead and they outshot the ‘Canes 11-7.

In the final two periods, however, emotions eased and the Rangers left their game somewhere between Raleigh and New York; they lost whatever edge they had. With Carolina staying out of the penalty box, the Rangers could not solve Ward again for the rest of the night. A couple of glaring mistakes on their part turned their one lead into a one goal deficit, which changed the game entirely.

Early in the second, the Rangers skated in on an odd man rush (one of many in the game) and Fedor Tyutin missed the net and got caught out of position, which resulted in a two-on-one the other way. Ray Whitney made a fake, and then passed the puck to Sergei Samsonov, who easily beat Henrik Lundqvist at 6:07 to even the score.

Just over two minutes later, the Rangers were caught in a bad change after a poor pass in their offensive zone trapped several players. The outcome was another odd man rush with Rod Brind’Amour getting his 18th when he deked Lundqvist to the ice and flipped the puck into a wide open net. The period ended 2-1 Carolina and the Blueshirts didn’t look too happy.

Trevor Letowski scored at 3:40 of the final frame to open a two goal lead for Carolina. He made a strong move to the net after Chad LaRose fed him a good pass and beat Lundqvist to the far side; it was a crucial goal that took all the starch out of the Rangers. Neither team did any further damage; the Rangers had few quality scoring chances for the remainder of regulation.

With this loss, Lundqvist (24 saves) is 0-4-4 in his last eight road games and has not won away from MSG since December 1st. The rough schedule continues with a game in Philadelphia on Thursday night with the Atlantic Division leading Flyers.