OT goal lifts Rangers past Pens in Game 7
Flames also win in OT, eliminate Stars; Oilers next
NEW YORK — Artemi Panarin is such a gifted passer, he looks to set up his teammates for goals. He can shoot, too, and he came through in a prime situation.
Panarin scored a power-play goal 4:46 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 Sunday night to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Overall, honestly, they’ve been letting me shoot since the first game,” Panarin said through a translator after he took six shots in Game 7 after totaling 17 in the first six. “Kind of my bad, I haven’t really been making those shots. But maybe I should listen to everyone’s advice and actually get out there and take shots.”
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant had a feeling Panarin was going to rise to the occasion in overtime.
“He’s the guy,” Gallant said, “when it was heading into overtime, I said to myself, ‘I know he’s going to score if we score. If we get the winning goal, it’s going to be him.’ ”
Mika Zibanejad had a goal and two assists, and Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller also scored for New York, which got its third straight comeback win after trailing 3-1 in the series.
The Rangers are the first team in NHL playoff history to record three consecutive comeback wins in elimination games in the same series.
“It’s a huge win for the team, for the organization,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “A gutsy performance, coming back again. That whole ‘No Quit In New York’ thing is pretty true with this group.”
The Rangers went on a power play 2:55 into overtime when Pittsburgh’s Brock McGinn was called for holding. Late in the advantage, Panarin got the puck on the right side and fired a shot from the right circle past Tristan Jarry.
The Rangers players mobbed Panarin along the boards in the left corner as the sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd went into a frenzy. New York advanced to the second round for the first time since 2017, when they lost to Ottawa.
New York will play Carolina next.
Evan Rodrigues had a goal and an assist, and Jake Guentzel and Danton Heinen also scored for the Penguins, who were ousted in the first playoff series for the fourth straight year. Jarry returned in goal and had 26 saves in his first game since April 14.
The Penguins also had captain Sidney Crosby back after he missed the last game with an upper body injury sustained midway through Game 5.
“Tonight, we’re on the wrong ends of some bounces,” Crosby said. “We played a great game tonight, we played some good hockey throughout the series. We didn’t get that next one tonight that was probably the difference but I think even when we had those leads we still played the right way. Tonight was an example of one game, anything can happen.”
FLAMES 3, STARS 2, OT: In Calgary, Alberta, Johnny Gaudreau scored on a tough-angle shot at 15:09 of overtime as Calgary won Game 7 of its series against Dallas.
Calgary will play rival Edmonton in the next round, the first time the two have met in the playoffs since 1991.
The Flames outshot Dallas 67-28 on Sunday night, the second largest differential between teams for a playoff game in NHL history.