Rangers look to pull off comeback
After trailing series 3-1, N.Y. won two in row to force Game 7
Sitting on the bench after he had hit the crossbar with a shot on a breakaway, Mika Zibanejad asked to see a video replay so he could assess whether he made the right move against the goalie.
When Chris Kreider saw what his teammate was looking at, he snatched the iPad out of his hands and flung it to the floor beside the bench. No need to second-guess anything. Zibanejad had already scored two goals to get the New York Rangers out of a desperate situation against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The move he made was good and the shot barely missed. Take that tablet and shove it in the trash.
The unflappable Zibanejad never even looked over at Kreider, and instead just reached forward and sipped
from a bottle as they rested between shifts on the ice.
It was the kind of interaction that sometimes exists only between longtime hockey linemates, and on Friday that partnership helped lead the Rangers to a momentous Game 7 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, the first Game 7 for the Rangers in seven years.
On Friday, Zibanejad and Kreider each scored twice and Zibanejad added two assists, enabling the Rangers to stave off elimination with a dramatic comeback and a 5-3 win in Game 6.
Sunday’s Game 7 will be the first for the Rangers since they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2015 Eastern Conference final, and one of five Games 7s in the NHL this weekend.
“It’s exciting,” said Rangers coach Gerard Gallant. “Three days ago, we were down, 3-1, and now we’ve got a chance to go home and win Game 7.”
After the win, Zibanejad and Kreider sat together, like brothers, discussing in a news conference how they had reached that point in the game and the series. Zibanejad had not scored in the first five games and some frustration may have set in. As Gallant says, Zibanejad puts a lot of pressure on himself to produce.
Zibanejad lauded Kreider for his unwavering support, and Kreider returned the favor, praising Zibanejad for continuing to play hard and effectively at both ends of the ice, even when he was not scoring.
“I think the playoffs sometimes can reveal who you are, the kind of character you have,” Kreider said. “For him to stay with his game and continue to work, he’s been a huge, huge leader for us all year. He’s been an absolute horse.”
The Rangers trailed 2-0 after one period, and the Penguins, playing without Sidney Crosby, their star center and captain, were 40 minutes from advancing to the second round. But Zibanejad scored two goals on slap shots within 76 seconds to tie the game.
“There’s no quit,” Zibanejad said of the comeback. “That’s what I love about this team.”
A few minutes later there was another crazy breakaway. The play started when Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin took advantage of a bad Penguins line change and made a perfect 100foot stretch pass onto Zibanejad’s stick. Zibanejad was in alone again.
“His passing is sometimes better than all of us,” Zibanejad said of Shesterkin’s stick work.
Penguins goalie Louis Domingue made the initial stop on Zibanejad, but Kreider was right there with his linemate, and he smacked home the rebound to give the Rangers the lead 3-2. If that sounds similar to the scoring pattern of Game 5 at Madison Square Garden, it was, and it would continue, right down to New York’s final empty-netter.
Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins to even things up 3-3 on a breakaway late in the second period. The game remained tied until there was only 1:28 left to play. Kreider then unleashed a high slap shot that Domingue saved in front of his chest, but the puck spun up over his head and fell back behind him and into the net.
“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” said Penguins defenseman Kris Letang.