Rangers complete comeback, defeat Penguins in Game 7
Artemi 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.
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.
Andrew Copp had two assists and Igor Shesterkin stopped 42 shots.
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 all mobbed Panarin along the boards in the left corner as the sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd erupted 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.
OILERS 2, KINGS 0 >> Captain Connor McDavid has seen his team through to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
McDavid a goal and an assist as Edmonton got a nerve-racking victory over visiting Los Angeles in Game 7 late Saturday night.
“It feels good to do it in that fashion,” McDavid said
of the shutout. “There is always a lot of talk about the defensive side of the game, so for our group to step up in a big moment and play like that in a 2-0 win ... it feels good.”
“But that being said, it is just one round. There is a long way to go here. We're happy to move on to the second round, but that is all we did, survived another day.”
Cody Ceci also scored and Smith made 28 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs for the Oilers, who last won a Game 7 in 1998 and celebrated their first playoff series win since 2017.
Jonathan Quick made 39 saves for the Kings, who have not won a playoff series since they won their second Stanley Cup in 2014 — also the last year they won a series in a Game 7. AVALANCHE GOALIE KUEMPER READY TO GO >> The swelling around Colorado Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper's right eye has subsided a week after catching a stick blade through his mask.
“I can see now,” he said with a laugh Sunday after practice.
This remains clear to him, too: The incident could've been far more serious. “I got pretty lucky,” Kuemper said, “that it wasn't worse.”
The stick of Nashville center Ryan Johansen slipped through the protective bars on Kuemper's mask and caught him around the eyelid during Game 3 on May 7. It's the second time in his NHL career an inadvertent stick blade has poked Kuemper through his mask.
“Super strange,” said Kuemper, who will be back in net when the Avalanche begin their second-round series against St. Louis.
Still, he has no plans to change goalie masks.