Rangers vs Hurricanes Game 1 score: Ian Cole plays unsung hero for Carolina in OT win

Ian Cole played the hero for the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Rangers.

About 3:12 in the overtime period, Cole got a hold of the puck to the left of Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin and carried it up toward the blue line before turning around and firing it toward the net. Somehow, the puck made its way past Shesterkin and into the back of the net.

Carolina won, 2-1.

Cole had only scored two goals in the entire regular season for Carolina. The veteran defenseman appeared in 75 games. He hadn’t scored a playoff goal since he was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in their Stanley Cup final against the San Jose Sharks back in 2016.

The Hurricanes had to dig deep to even force overtime.

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Carolina started to ramp up its offense more in the third period. Sebastian Aho would get the equalizer past Shesterkin late in the third period. The game went into overtime tied 1-1.

Rangers enter Filip Chytil scored the first goal of the game. He got one past Antti Raanta at the 7:07 mark but the offense couldn’t help Shesterkin any further.

Raanta had 27 saves on 28 shots from New York. His counterpart Shesterkin had 24 saves.

Carolina goes up 1-0 in the series with Game 2 of the series set for Friday night.