Rangers again show there’s ‘No Quit in NY’ with thrilling series-clinching win
No quit in New York.
That’s been the theme for the Rangers over the past few seasons.
That motto has been especially true with this season's Presidents’ Trophy-winning squad as it’s never seemed that they are ever out of games.
They battled back late throughout the regular season, finishing with the most come-from-behind wins in hockey.
So when their back was square against the wall in Thursday’s crucial Game 6 with the Carolina Hurricanes, are you even allowed to be surprised that they came through?
After dropping back-to-back games, the second of which on home ice, New York was down by two heading into the third after being outplayed for the majority of the first two periods, recording just 16 shots on goal to Carolina’s 28. But things quickly changed.
“We knew that we could get two goals in the third period from confidence in the year we’ve had,” Peter Laviolette said. “When our back was up against the wall the guys in that room delivered.”
New York’s stars certainly did deliver, as Igor Shesterkin made big save after big save down the stretch and Chris Kreider’s natural hat trick highlighted four answered goals, securing yet another come-from-behind win and the series victory.
“We never really felt like we were out of it,” Kreider said. “We’ve had a decent number of come-from-behind wins this season. We talk about being a resilient and competitive group and I think we really showed that tonight.”
Kreider expanded his already strong Ranger legacy, joining Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky as the only three players in franchise history to record three goals in one period in a postseason game.
“We were down on ourselves after the second,” Vincent Trocheck said. “We didn’t love the way we played the first two periods, but whenever you’re in a spot like that you need your big players to come up big and Chris did that for us.”
“It was special,” Laviolette added. “He put it on his back and really delivered with a monster third period. It was just an unbelievable performance.”
New York now awaits the winner of the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers matchup in the Eastern Conference Finals.
While they still have some things to clean up moving forward, they continue to show that they’re a resilient group and you can never truly count them out.
