The spring tutorial for the young New York Rangers continues as they played their first must win game and prevailed 5-3 to force a Game Six in Pittsburgh on Friday. It was an unlikely result in a game that looked like a season ending loss with five minutes left in the second period and the Rangers down 2-0.
As wonderful as the result was, there was reason for concern. Needing to get off to a good start, the Rangers took two penalties just 24 seconds into the game. Once again, the Sidney Crosby line prevailed with Jake Guentzel scoring his sixth goal in four games to take the early lead. Another defensive breakdown by the Blueshirts resulted in Kris Letang’s goal and a 2-0 deficit. Igor Shesterkin handed the Penguins the puck and they were able to tie the game after the Rangers had taken a 3-2 lead. The Rangers weren’t able to take control of the game until Sidney Crosby was hurt and had to leave the game.
But the biggest issue was the fact that for almost 35 minutes the Rangers were unable to mount any kind of sustained forecheck or offense in a game that they had to win. They were being schooled by the Pittsburgh Penguins, unable to put any pressure on Louis Domingue and looking completely ineffective offensively.
The Jekyll and Hyde Rangers waited until late in the second period to turn it on and when they did, they became an offensive tsunami. The shift when they scored their first goal was the first shift of sustained offense in the Penguins zone in the entire game. It was a New York team we hadn’t seen for almost two periods. This was the third time that has happened in this series with the Rangers being unstoppable on offensive. They did it in the first period of Game One and the second period of Game Three.
The difference from those two games was that after that whirlwind of offense, they didn’t stop. They kept pushing and did what they couldn’t do in those games, get the go ahead goal and hold the lead.
The kid line comes through
As they have all series, the kid line was the Rangers most effective. Kaapo Kakko made an outstanding backhand pass from behind the net to Alexis Lafreniere who buried it .
THE KIDS SAID "HELLO" pic.twitter.com/t8ScWzRWba
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 12, 2022
The much maligned Filip Chytil was on the second power play unit and scored the game winner with the man advantage.
ANOTHER FIRST CAREER STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF GOAL FOR ONE OF OUR KIDS. pic.twitter.com/fInx9B9WjM
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 12, 2022
The trio finished with two goals and two assists and was the most effective line when the Rangers were being outplayed early in the game.