It took every bit of Game 7 in New York City and then some for the Rangers to pull off another comeback victory. The Pittsburgh Penguins received great news prior to puck drop tonight: the return of their captain, Sidney Crosby, their starting goaltender, Tristan Jarry, and another top 6 forward, Rickard Rakell.
It was the Rangers who struck first, however, with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider taking full advantage of a neutral zone turnover to covert a two-on-one high glove on Jarry. The "Jarry" chants reigned down.
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Danton Heinen responded by the end of the first period following a four minute high sticking call on Rangers' defenseman Jacob Trouba. Heinen tallied a powerplay goal that just barely crossed the goal line. Play initially continued, but Toronto called in and the horn sounded indicating a good goal for the Penguins.
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The second period continued to be a close checking affair with both teams seemingly trading chances. Halfway through the period, the Penguins were on the powerplay once again due to a puck over the glass delay of game penalty. On this powerplay, Penguins forward Jake Guentzel channeled his multi-sport youth by soccer kicking the puck into the air and baseball bunting the puck into the net. The play was incredibly close to being a high stick on the puck. The officials reviewed the goal and did not find conclusive evidence to overturn the call. You'll be the judge:
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The Rangers did not wait long to return the goal in kind. K'Andre Miller answered with a shot from the point. The puck deflected off Penguins' defenseman Mike Matheson's skate (once again), but hey, a goal is a goal, and it's the first playoff goal of the young defenseman's promising career.
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To the Blueshirts' faithful, most of the calls to this point went to the Penguins. The Rangers finally received a favorable call late in the second period on a Bryan Rust cross checking call. The Penguins had all but killed off the penalty when Evan Rodrigues intercepted a pass at his own blueline and scored on a shorthanded breakaway.
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It took nearly 15 minutes of the third period, but the Rangers finally managed to tie it up. On an Andrew Copp feed from the corner, Zibanejad buried a one-timer high glove on Jarry. The Penguins were quite displeased with the goal because defenseman Marcus Pettersson lost his helmet after a run in with Alexis Lafreniere earlier on the play.
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Early in overtime, Penguins' forward Brock McGinn took a holding penalty against Miller. The call could have been a penalty shot, but we got just a regular old two minute penalty. On the following powerplay, after switching sides on the powerplay formation, Artemi Panarin, ripped a seeing-eye shot through traffic past netminder Jarry to win the game in dramatic fashion.
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It turns out the return of Crosby, Jarry, and Rakell made little difference to the Rangers. For the third consecutive game, they achieved a comeback victory to seal the deal in the series. The Rangers now head to Carolina to face the Metropolitan-winning Hurricanes in Raleigh early next week.
