Rangers’ resilience has them in Eastern finals
With Hurricanes in rearview, Lightning up next for NY
RALEIGH, N.C. — Nothing is fazing these New York Rangers, not multigame series deficit nor playing in a building where no road team has won in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Instead, this resilient bunch is carrying an ever-growing confidence straight into the Eastern Conference finals, thanks to another Game 7 win and the latest strong performance from possibly the game’s best goaltender.
Chris Kreider scored twice, Igor Shesterkin was strong in net again and the Rangers ended Carolina’s perfect postseason run at home, beating the Hurricanes 6-2 pm Monday night in the decisive Game 7 of their second-round playoff series.
Kreider and Adam Fox had first-period power-play goals as the Rangers raced to a quick lead. The Rangers then rode Shesterkin’s latest offense-stymieing performance to win a fifth straight elimination game.
“Backs against the wall five times now,” Fox said, “and we’ve come through all five.”
Shesterkin — a finalist for both the Vezina Trophy for the league’s top goalie and Hart Trophy for most valuable player — finished with 36 saves and carried the shutout well into the third period.
Now the Rangers are off to a conference final for the first time since 2015, earning a matchup with two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay. New York will host Game 1 of that series Wednesday night.
Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil also scored in what became an unexpected rout, with Andrew Copp adding a late empty-netter. More impressively, the Rangers’ win came in an arena where the Hurricanes had gone 7-0 in the playoffs, including a Game 7 victory to beat Boston in the first round and three meetings in this series.
New York coach Gerard Gallant said Sunday he had a group of players who “have a lot of fun and they believe in themselves.” They looked as if they were doing plenty of both Monday in capping a second straight comeback from a multigame deficit.
First, they rallied from 3-1 down to beat
Pittsburgh in a seven-game series. Then, after falling into a 0-2 hole against Carolina, New York responded with more resilience, even a stubborn refusal to fade out when down.
Kreider went as far as to throw in a comparison to “cockroaches.”
“We don’t go away, regardless of the score, regardless of where our game is at,” Kreider said.
There were no questions about that Monday night, particularly with Shesterkin holding up against 17 first-period shots. That included one stop from flat on his back on Sebastian Aho near the right post, with Shesterkin snagging the puck between his legs flailing, as if trying to make a snow angel.
The Rangers also helped by blocking 25 shots in front of him.
“You’ve got to pay a price to win games in this league, especially against real good teams like that,” Gallant said. “I love the way our guys are competing and battling. I’ve said 100 times this year, we’re not perfect, but we find ways to win.”
Vincent Trocheck finally beat Shesterkin with a deflection on a Tony Deangelo shot midway through the third period, only to see the Rangers follow with Chytil’s goal just 40 seconds later to push the margin to 5-1.
Eastern finals at a glance Tampa Bay Lightning (5 1 -2 3 -8 , third in the Atlantic Division) vs. New York Rangers (5 2 -2 4 -6 , second in the Metropolitan Division)
Game 1: at New York; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EDT Bottom line: The New York Rangers host the Tampa Bay Lightning to open the Eastern Conference finals. The teams meet Saturday for the fourth time this season. The Rangers went 3-0 against the Lightning in the regular season. In their last regular season matchup on March 19, the Rangers won 2-1.
TOP PERFORMERS Last 10 games:
Rangers: 7-2-1, averaging 3.4 goals, 5.7 assists, 3.9 penalties and 8.3 penalty minutes while giving up 2.1 goals per game. Lightning: 8-2-0, averaging 3.6 goals, 5.5 assists, 4.1 penalties and nine penalty minutes while giving up two goals per game.