NHL playoffs: Rangers and Flames advance after Game 7 overtime thrillers
Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal 4:46 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Sunday night to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“He’s the guy,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said of Panarin, “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, who clinched their third straight comeback win after trailing 3-1 in the series. Andrew Copp had two assists and Igor Shesterkin stopped 42 shots.
“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 are the first team in NHL playoff history to record three consecutive comeback wins in elimination games within the same series.
New York will play Carolina next. Game 1 is on Wednesday. The Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7 on Saturday night.
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.
“Tonight, we’re on the wrong ends of some bounces,” Penguins captain Sidney 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.”
Calgary Flames 3-2 Dallas Stars (OT) In Sunday’s other Game 7, Johnny Gaudreau scored 15:09 into overtime to lift Calgary past the Dallas, giving the Flames just their second playoff series win in the last 17 years.
“You dream about stuff like that,” Gaudreau said, “scoring in a Game 7 in overtime.”
Gaudreau got a rebound and put a sharp-angled shot over Jake Oettinger, who made 64 saves for Dallas, a franchise record for the most stops in a Game 7.
The Flames will face the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference’s semifinal in the first postseason Battle of Alberta since 1991. The series opens Wednesday in Calgary.
“I’ve been here for nine years and never had even a sniff of a chance to play them in playoffs, so it’s pretty special,” Gaudreau said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun, good for the province, going to be a lot of fun for them, for us. It’s going to be a pretty cool series.”
Tyler Toffoli and Matthew Tkachuk scored their first goals of the series for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom stopped 26 shots and had an assist in the win. Jamie Benn and Vladislav Namestnikov scored for the Stars.