NHL | The Rauma deputy became the hottest goalkeeper in the NHL playoffs

New York

Antti Raanta plays the spring of his life in the NHL playoffs. Carolina Hurricanes’ goalkeeper confidence and tone are now so iron that not even a bitter defeat to the New York Rangers got him down.

“There’s that kind of feeling in the body and in the mind that lets just come. Now it’s so pretty to just play for as long as possible, ”Raanta said with a smile on his face, even though the Rangers had only narrowed their winnings to 2-1 in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference in New York on Sunday.

From Raanna33, has become the brightest Finnish star in the NHL playoffs and one of the hottest goalkeepers in the entire league.

He has already been selected as the best player in the playoffs three times in the playoffs, although he was not given a game time.

Carolina conceded the least goals in the NHL regular season, but the team’s clear No. 1 goalkeeper was a Dane Frederik Andersen. He played in 52 matches, Raanta only in 28 – and more of them came at the very end of the regular season after Andersen was injured.

“No one hopes to be injured, but it always opens up a buggy to someone else, and now it’s been great to get and use that bastard yourself,” Raanta said.

Andersen is already back in ice practice and may be in shape soon. But if Carolina went a long way, it would almost certainly mean Raanna’s games would go well. In the playoffs, the winning goalkeeper is not easily changed.

“You never know what will happen next. However, he is one of the best leavers in the league this season, ”Raanta praised Andersen.

“That’s why I’m trying to do my best and enjoy these days.”

Beach had played 128 minutes, more than two matches into the tube, without scoring a goal when the Swedish-Finnish Rangers Mika Zibanejad overtook him with superiority from the front corner Artemi Panarinin from the cross feed.

Raanta was more annoyed by Rangers’ 2–0 hit, which Chris Kreider – the third best scorer in the regular season – slammed unbearably carefully into the back corner after first skating behind the goal, curving away from the unsuspecting Raanna.

“I got a little stuck in the front post. I thought at least it wouldn’t pull, but the pull was off and the back corner was pretty empty, ”Raanta said.

“Small margin games shouldn’t really go that way.”

Matches Between the Hurricanes and the Rangers have been really strict and, above all, trivial. They have finished for Caroline 2-1 (overtime), Carolina 2-0 (latter goal empty) and now Rangers 3-1 (last goal empty).

This has made the matches a pronounced duel between the goalkeepers, at least in the eyes of the crowd. Raanta is still on the neck, even though the NHL’s perhaps best goalkeeper at the opposite end Igor Šestjorkin. The Russian Šestjorkin is among the top three in the voting for both the best goalkeeper and the most valuable player in the regular season.

Raanta was chosen as the best in the bowl in the previous match, while Šestjorkin was chosen now.

“It doesn’t help to think about what the other guy is doing, but that way it seems to have to be emphatically awake all the time knowing that we’re not getting any free goals either.”

The only thing Hurricanes did was half-free. Nino Niederreiterin The 2-1 tap slipped behind Šestjorkin easily with a knuckle from the front corner.

Another Russian did not falter, and at the end of the Rangers Tyler Motte finalized the final scores on an empty net after Raanta had been replaced at risk by a field player.

From Raanna did not get caught again this time as his top defenses offered the Hurricanes a chance to win even on Sunday.

After two home wins, the bright lights of Manhattan at the legendary Madison Square Garden might be a little dazzling as the camera picks up an all-time hockey player from the audience. Wayne Gretzkyn and New York TV stars. Sebastian Ahon, Teuvo Teräväinen, Jesperi Kotkaniemen and the grips of the other attackers of Hurricanes exhausted the sharpness so obviously that it shone into the top ranks of the auditorium.

The visitors scored 44 to 33 goals, but the home team’s situation was constantly more dangerous.

“We played a pretty good match, but there was little left in the barrel. Once again, the opponent scored a superior goal and we were not allowed to do it, ”Raanta said.

After all, Madison Square Garden was nothing new to Raanna herself, as she played in the Rangers for the 2015-2017 season, a club legend Henrik Lundqvistin as deputy.

“It was fun when I remembered all the stuff that was happening even with the TV breaks. It’s different to play here, but we also have an infinitely stunning home crowd that has delivered terribly. We should just find that tiger eye here for guest gaming, ”Raanta said.

“When you can reset a home team, fans tend to be a little quieter. It will be pursued in the next game. ”

This is already Raanna’s ninth NHL season, but the playoffs as the number one goalkeeper have already made these weeks the highlights of her NHL career.

“It’s so awesome. Will definitely remember the rest of his life. There is only one goal, and that is the Stanley Cup. ”

But moment: Hasn’t Antti Raanta already won the Stanley Cup?

The question is surprisingly difficult to answer.

Raanta has rocked the NHL trophy to his hometown of Rauma and even won a championship ring, but his name has not been engraved on the most coveted prize in hockey.

This is because Raanta was the third guard on the Chicago Blackhawks championship team in the 2014-2015 season. He played too little to get his name on the game: 14 games in the regular season and none in the playoffs.

“I already said then that the goal is to win it as a goalkeeper still playing sometime. A big dream. ”

That goal has become more realistic all the time. Now just passing.

“When the game starts and you get a few battles at the beginning, it becomes a feeling: this is cool.”

To Raanna this season has differed from all the previous ones also on a very private level. He lost his grandfather to coronavirus within a few days last summer and then to his father for post-operative pneumonia.

“When Dad slept away, the priorities went new. Hockey was a bit forgotten as he focused on grief work. But it’s life, you can’t stick to it anymore. ”

Raanna’s father used to send him a text message before each game.

“The funniest part is that Big Brother has taken on that role and nowadays always puts a message, basics and so on before the game. That tradition has remained within the family, ”Raanta said.

“Of course, as the season progresses, there have been times when it would have been great to talk again, to tell what’s going on here. Probably somewhere on the edge of the cloud, Dad is watching these games – and enjoying them. ”