When the New York
Rangers came back from Pittsburgh earlier in the week, they were on the
brink of being eliminated by the Penguins after two bad losses on the
road.
Following
two spirited comeback wins, they return home for a deciding Game 7 at
Madison Square Garden on Sunday night (7 p.m. EDT, TBS) with some
momentum on their side.
“Game
7 is huge for us and now we’ve got to make sure we finish it off
tomorrow and play the right way,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said
Saturday. “We worked hard to get back. I think everybody’s really
excited. ... It’s a big game, for sure. It’s a lot of fun and I look
forward to it.”
After
falling into a 3-1 series hole, the Rangers have a pair of 5-3 wins —
at home and then back on the road — to even the series. In each of the
last two wins, they fell behind 2-0 before surging ahead with three
consecutive goals in the second periods and letting the Penguins tie it
again. New York then pulled away in the third periods.
Gallant said he isn’t concerned by the team’s seemingly slow starts as long as they end up winning.
“As
long as we finish the right way, I don’t care. It’s all about winning
the hockey game,” he said. “It’s worked out for us so far, but I don’t
like it obviously.”
Clawing
back from a deficit is nothing new for these Rangers. During the
regular season, they had 27 comeback wins — just two fewer than the
league-leading Florida Panthers.
“We
show no quit — that’s what I love about this team,” Mika Zibanejad said
after the latest win. “We’ve shown it throughout the year, throughout
this series. ... It’s something special about this group and we’re going
to try to keep it going.”
The
Penguins have been through this before as it’s they are 3-0 in Game 7s
under coach Mike Sullivan, including the deciding game on the road
against Washington in the second round of the 2017 playoffs.
“We’re
confident in our game plan,” Pittsburgh forward Jeff Carter said. “If
you go in with the right mindset and you leave it all out there, most of
the time you’re going to come out on top. That’s what we’ll look to
do.”
The
Penguins could get a boost with the possible return injured players
Sidney Crosby, Tristan Jarry and Rickard Rakell. They all practiced
Saturday and will travel to New York for the series finale. Jarry has
not played since April 14, Rakell was injured in Game 1 of this series,
and Crosby left in the second period of Game 5.
This
is the fourth time in franchise history the Rangers have forced a Game 7
after trailing 3-1 in a series. Forward Chris Kreider is the only
player who was around the last two times they did it — the second round
against the Penguins in 2014 and second round against Washington in 2015
— and won each of the deciding games.
His message to his teammates is simple.
“Just
need to settle down and get to our game,” Kreider said. “I think we’ve
been doing a better job of that over the last two games. ... We’ve been
treating every game since we’ve been down like it’s a Game 7, it’s been
do or die for us, so nothing changes.”