Rangers show no quit, rally to beat Penguins in Game 7
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 powerplay goal 4:46 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 Sunday 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 — the tying tally in the third period — 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.
“It’s a huge win for the team, for the organization,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “A gutsy performance, coming back. That whole ‘No Quit In New York’ thing is pretty true with this group.”
New York will play Carolina next.
FLAMES 3, STARS 2, OT >> Johnny Gaudreau scored the game-winner — series-winner — 15:09 into overtime, lifting Calgary over Dallas in Game 7 and into the second round of the playoffs.
The Flames were stymied nearly all night by Stars rookie goalie Jake Oettinger, who recorded a career-high 64 saves. But Gaudreau finally beat Oettinger on his seventh shot of the game.
The victory vaults Calgary into the second round, where it will face Alberta rival Edmonton.