First Period:

• Curtis Lazar (1) Assists: Kevin Bahl (1), Damon Severson (2)
• Chris Kreider (6) (Power Play) Assists: Mika Zibanejad (3), Adam Fox (7)

Second Period:

• Mika Zibanejad (1) Assists: Chris Kreider (2), Vladimir Tarasenko (1)
• Vladimir Tarasenko (3) Assists: Chris Kreider (3), Adam Fox (8)

Third Period:

• Barclay Goodrow (1) Assists: Jimmy Vesey (1)
• Braden Schneider (1) Assists: Niko Mikkola (2), Filip Chytil (3)
• Dawson Mercer (2) (Power Play) Assists: Nico Hischier (4), Jack Hughes (1)

Three Stars:

• 3: Mika Zibanejad
• 2: Vladimir Tarasenko
• 1: Chris Kreider

Stats:

Adam Rotter:

• The five goals are the first thing you notice, but the Rangers are only going to Game 7 because of Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers had a terrible, jittery and nervous first period, but the PP came through late and that relieved a little bit of pressure. The first ten minutes of the second period seemed even, but the Rangers took over once Mika Zibanejad scored. But it was Shesterkin who was outstanding throughout that brings the Rangers to Monday. He made sure that if the Rangers were going to lose it wasn’t going to be because of him.
• But that first period was scary. The Devils scored first, they were buzzing and the Rangers looked incapable of completing passes and generating anything. Shesterkin remained solid and Chris Kreider gave them and the building some life with the late PP goal.
• You go from thinking one minute that Mika Zibanejad broke his hand blocking a shot to the next minute when he scores the biggest goal of the season for the Rangers. Once he scored you could just feel through the TV that the Rangers were relaxed and the confidence from the first two games in the series was back.
• That confidence comes from your two best scorers scoring your first two goals and grows even more when Chris Kreider makes that deft little pass and Vladimir Tarasenko fired one home. I’m not sure if it will carry over to Game 7, but the Rangers, for the first time since Game 2 that the Rangers were capable of playing winning hockey.
• It took until he really had no choice, but it was about time that Gerard Gallant realized that fitting Patrick Kane onto the first PP unit wasn’t going to work. I would have just put Vincent Trocheck back and kept Kane and Tarasenkno on the second unit, but it didn’t really matter who was in the bumper spot as long as Zibanejad was back in his.
• Patrick Kane is Patrick Kane, but it’s always worth remembering that the Rangers chose Vladimir Tarasenko over Kane. It was nice that they were able to get Kane, but they spent too much time trying to make things work around him and force him into spots where things were already working. Tarasenko lost some ice time when they got Kane and his impact was lessened a bit, but he’s had big moments in the playoffs so far and stepped up after getting moved back to the top line.
• They did what they had to do tonight on the back of Igor Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. They played with urgency, they played with pace and went back to frustrating the Devils. They finally put forth some real offense, tested Schmid and forced him out of the game.
• Artemi Panarin still looks broken. He’s just fumbling with the puck, but it was Game 7 in OT last year where he made his biggest mark and he’ll have that chance again on Monday.
• The pressure has shifted back to New Jersey, but that doesn’t mean that Game 7 on Monday will be easy. They’d be well served to get the first one and build on what they did in the last 30 minutes tonight
• So they stay alive and extend the season to at least Monday. If they win Monday they get to see Carolina for the second straight year. If they lose on Monday then all those questions after Thursday’s loss will come back to the forefront. But they get to Game 7 and that was certainly in question after how they performed the prior three games.