Rangers advance past Penguins in typical comeback fashion
NEW YORK » No quit in New York.
Especially this time of year, there’s always some sort of slogan for a team, but it’s usually little more than empty messaging, something that can be stuck on the front of a Tshirt and sold with that year’s “playoffs” logo on it to make a buck.
But this one?
This one makes sense for the New York Rangers, who had 27 regular season comeback wins, but saved the best for their most recent triumph, erasing a third period deficit and a two-game series disadvantage with a dramatic, 4-3 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round.
Artemi Panarin’s gamewinning goal on the power play at 4:46 of the extra session sent a sellout crowd of 18,000-plus into a frenzy, and sent his team into a second-round matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes.
“It’s a huge win for the team, for the organization,” said defenseman Jacob Trouba.
“Gutsy performance, coming back again. That whole ‘No quit in New York’ thing is pretty true with this group.”
Is it ever.
But, just as comeback wins have been a staple of the Rangers group all season long, so has controversy throughout this series, and Game 7 was certainly no exception.
With much of the pregame focus being on the Penguins returning trio of Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Tristan Jarry, all but the latter of whom had been knocked out of the series at some point with injuries, talking points quickly shifted to how two of the six goals in regulation were scored.
Jake Guentzel’s go-ahead goal at 10:18 of the second period, which gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at the time, appeared to potentially have been struck with a high stick, but the call on the ice of a good goal was allowed to stand after a video review.
“I thought it was a high stick, but it was really close,” said Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant.
“When they call it a goal on the ice, they have to review it in Toronto, and they review it and look at it. We’re always told if it’s close, it’s going to be a good goal. It was close. I still think it was a little bit of a high stick, but we don’t have to worry about that.”
There was perhaps less understanding on the other side of the result.
Mika Zibanejad’s gametying goal with just 5:45 left in regulation also came with some controversy. Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson appeared to have a chance to clear the puck during a sustained offensive zone possession by the Rangers, but because his helmet had been knocked off, by rule, he had to skate to the bench.
While Pettersson, also by rule, could have immediately put his helmet back on and remained on the ice, he was instead replaced by Kris Letang, but Zibanejad scored shortly thereafter to make it a 3-3 game. How that helmet came off in the first place was the point of contention.
“He has to come off, by the rule,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think it stinks. He has to come off. His helmet got pulled off intentionally, but that’s the rule.”
Crosby also referred to it as a “terrible rule” in his post-game availability, saying it “probably ends up being the difference in the
game.”
Regardless, the Penguins now go home, and the Rangers advance to face a Hurricanes team that features many Blueshirts alums in Jesper Fast, Brady Skjei, Antti Raanta, Tony DeAngelo and Derek Stepan.
“They play a fast, physical game,” Trouba said.
“They get in on the forecheck. We’re going to have be good at breaking pucks out, and take advantage of our opportunities when we get them.”
The series begins in Raleigh on Wednesday night, with action not picking back up at Madison Square Garden until Game 3 on Sunday afternoon.