“It’s going to be a dogfight”: Evgeny Kuznetsov anticipates a fierce showdown in the upcoming Game 5 against the New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are looking to knock out the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of their second-round series tonight at Madison Square Garden. But as Canes’ forward Evgeny Kuznetsov pointed out, the Hurricanes won’t make it easy for the New York Rangers to advance.

"It’s going to be a dogfight. There’s one bowl of food and two dogs going to compete against each other," Kuznetsov said.

Kuznetsov’s comments underscore the fact that Carolina isn’t going to bow out gracefully. They plan to fight for every last scrap of food in the bowl and force a Game 6 back in Raleigh.

So far this postseason, Kuznetsov has scored three goals and added two assists in eight games. His contributions from the fourth line have provided the Canes with much-needed depth in scoring. Kuznetsov, an experienced playoff performer, understands the urgency of the situation.

"Yeah, we are king of against the wall right now," he said via WRAL News.

Down 3-1, there’s no tomorrow for the Hurricanes. They will need to play the best game of the postseason to force Game 6.

"They know they don’t want to come back here." added Kuznetsov. "They know it is going to be hell here. They want to finish over there and what we are trying to do is just put the pressure on them a little bit and play our game."

New York Rangers looking to learn from mistakes

Following the New York Rangers Game 4 defeat, defenseman Adam Fox said:

"I think you would have loved to be able to win this game here and move on," Fox said via Reuters. "But you know they’re not going to go down too easy. So we regroup, obviously learn from some of the mistakes, and try and get that win on home ice."

While the Rangers have made very few mistakes so far this postseason, the team cannot ignore that the Hurricanes are a good team.

"We’re playing a really good team, and it’s easy to forget about it the way it’s been going, before the game being up 3-0. We just have to reset here and get ready for Monday," Rangers’ forward Mika Zibanejad said.

The New York Rangers would like nothing more than to end the series on home ice. As Kuznetsov pointed out, the Rangers would rather not go back to Raleigh. They’ll need to fix the mistakes made in Game 4 to ensure the series doesn’t go to Game 6.