Rangers win 4-3 in OT to advance to the 2nd Round

The New York Rangers are astounding. For the third straight game, the Rangers came from behind to win, rebounding from a 3-1 series deficit for the third time in franchise history.

The Rangers were outplayed for long periods by the Penguins who poured 45 shots at Igor Shesterkin, who was fabulous.   The Rangers’ netminder was back in his Hart Trophy form, saving the team repeatedly in all four periods.  Facing 22 high danger scoring chances to only six for New York, Shesterkin was the prime reason the Blueshirts won.

The other reason was the fact that the Ranger veterans stepped up and came through when they had to.  Chris Kreider got an early goal to give the Rangers the lead, his fifth goal of the series.

Mika Zibanejad scored the clutch third period tying goal with just 5:45 left in the game.

ZIbanejad scored three goals and added four assists for seven points in the last two games.  Yes, Zibanejad stepped up.  Don’t forget his desperate attempt to get to the bench when his skate blade came off.

Artemi Panarin had a disappointing game and wasn’t much of a factor in the series.  That is until he scored the power play goal in overtime that ended the series.

Of course, there were contributions from the kids with K’Andre Miller scoring his first playoff goal, though it did deflect off two Penguins.

Miller then stole the puck and had a breakaway, drawing the penalty in overtime that led to the game winning goal.

The Rangers became the first team in NHL history to come back from a 3-1 series deficit and to trail in all three elimination games.

The Rangers did their best to lose this game.  Jacob Trouba took a double minor for high sticking.  Kaapo Kakko shot the puck into the stands for another penalty.  Pittsburgh scored on both. They allowed a shorthanded goal to Evan Rodrigues late in the second period to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead.

Despite the mistakes and staring at a one goal deficit with six minutes left in their season, this never-say-die team got the tying goal and then won it.
There were some controversies.

Controversies

The game was not without controversy.  Danton Heinen scored a power play goal in the first period to tie the game.  The puck had gotten past Igor Shesterkin and a diving Adam Fox appeared to sweep it out of the net.

Some of the Penguins were celebrating the goal, but the teams played on until the situation room stopped play and informed the officials that the puck had crossed the net.

Jake Guentzel’s goal at 10:18 of the second period gave the Penguin a 2-1 lead and the Rangers felt it had been scored with a high stick.  Guentzel had kicked the puck into the air and batted it down into the net.

The officials ruled it a good goal after video review though Coach Gerard Gallant said he thought it was a high stick.

That same power play was the result of Kaapo Kakko shooting the puck over the glass. Some replays showed that it had deflected off the glass, but it wasn’t reviewable and it cost the Rangers.

The last controversy was over the tying goal scored by Mika Zibanejad.  Earlier in the shift, Alexis Lafrenière and Marcus Pettersson were battling behind the Pittsburgh net.   Pettersson had his helmet knocked off and instead of putting it back on, he started complaining to the refs and then had to go to the bench. It gave the Rangers more players on the ice briefly and Mika Zibanejad was able to tie the score.

Mike Sullivan didn’t mince words after the game, saying “He has to come off, by rule. I think it stinks. He has to come off. His helmet got pulled off intentionally but that’s the rule.”

He’s wrong.  Pettersson could have picked up the helmet and put it back on, he didn’t have to leave the ice. Here’s the rule: A player on the ice whose helmet comes off during play shall be assessed a minor penalty if he does not exit the playing surface, or retrieve and replace his helmet properly on his head (with or without his chin strap fastened), within a reasonable period of time.

After the game, Sidney Crosby blamed the goal on a “bad rule.”  Perhaps if Pettersson had put his helmet back on instead of waving his arms and complaining to the referees before going to the bench, the Penguins wouldn’t have anything to complain about.

Here’s the play:

Also, look at the goal being scored.  Do the math.  There are five Penguins skaters on the ice.

One thing that was not controversial was the holding penalty on Brock McGinn on K’Andre Miller’s breakaway attempt.  It was definitely a penalty and it cost the Penguins the series.

Team comeback

After the game, Mika Zibanejad referred to the slogan “No Quit in New York” when talking about the comeback.  During the regular season the Rangers came back to win after trailing in 27 games. That was second only to the Panthers who did it 29 times.  In the playoffs, it’s the same story. Both the Rangers and Panthers lead all teams, coming back after trailing three times already.

The resilience of this young Rangers team is astounding.  It’s almost as if they need to trail in order to win and this series was nothing but a succession of bounce back performances.

They recovered from the double gut punch in Game One of the apparent go ahead goal disallowed, followed by the triple overtime loss and came back to win the second game 5-2.   Then came the ultimate comeback that culminated in the seventh game.