First Period:
- Chris Kreider (5) Assists: Mika Zibanejad (7), Braden Schneider (3)
- Danton Heinen (3) (Power Play) Assists: Jeff Carter (1), Evan Rodrigues (2)
Second Period:
- Jake Guentzel (8) (Power Play) Unassisted
- K’Andre Miller (1) Assists: Ryan Strome (5), Andrew Copp (2)
- Evan Rodrigues (3) (Shorthanded) Unassisted
Third Period:
- Mika Zibanejad (3) Assists: Andrew Copp (3)
Overtime:
- Artemi Panarin (3) (Power Play) Assists: Adam Fox (7), Mika Zibanejad (8)
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- The find a way Rangers do it again and now find themselves in the second round of the playoffs.
- It took until the last possible moment, but Artemi Panarin finally came through for the Rangers in this series. He was having another roughish-type game, struggling to handle pucks, missing on passes, but in the biggest possible moment he rifled that shot through and put the Rangers into the second round.
- I thought that it was borderline that K’Andre Miller should have gotten a penalty shot in overtime, but it seemed more fitting for the PP to put the Rangers into the second round. Deep into the third period special teams were going to the reason why the Rangers weren’t advancing. Their PP kept missing, their PK was struggling and that was going to be the difference. Even into the PP where Panarin scored, they weren’t doing much, but in the end, the two things that carried the Rangers throughout the season, Igor Shesterkin and PP, pushed the Rangers into the second round.
- Igor Shesterkin played his best game since Game 2 and he was at the Vezina and Hart level tonight. He was outstanding and was the only reason why this wasn’t a blow out early when the Pens were hemming the Rangers in and dominating puck possession.
- Mika Zibanejad had a huge game outside of his tying goal. He was big on faceoffs and continued the strong play that he found in Game 6.
- This is such a hard game and series to evaluate because for most of it the Rangers were the second best team. They spent so much time in their zone and never made it tough on the Penguin goalies. They looked like a team that was going to deserve their fate, but at the same time, it was going to be incredibly disappointing that this team that just kept finding a way wasn’t going to. But they did. It was just like so much of the first half of the regular season where, mostly because of Igor Shesterkin and the PP, they found a way.
- Like Game 6, these thoughts, and there were many, were a lot different before Mika Zibanejad scored to tie it.
- Now they face the Hurricanes. Carolina beat Boston in 7 games and they are being backstopped by former Ranger Antti Raanta as Freddy Andersen is coming back from injury. The Hurricanes are a much better team than Pittsburgh and they showed in their regular season meetings. They are fast, put lots of pucks to the net and can also shut it down defensively. It will be a much tougher series for the Rangers and one where they will need Igor Shesterkin to steal games, Artemi Panarin to raise his level and a much sounder defensive structure.