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ECQF Gm 6: NYR 3 MTL 1, Zucc's pair, Lundqvist lead NY to game & series win

April 23, 2017, 1:13 AM ET [180 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers defeated the Canadiens 3-1 to advance to the Eastern Conference Semi-finals where the await the winner of the Boston-Ottawa series.

Game Highlights:



Series recap tweet:




Empire State Building after the game:




New York trailed 1-0 after one on an Alexei Emelin goal and were fortunate to be down one goal. Like Game 4, they flipped the switch in the second period. this time early in the frame. Mats Zuccarello scored a PPG and then converted a great feed from Kevin Hayes to make it 2-1. Henrik Lundqvist robbed Shea Weber with a glove save late in the stanza to keep it 2-1. The Rangers didn't sit on the heels in the third, carrying play part of the frame while responsible defensively. Lundqvist made a huge save late, robbing Tomas Plekenac with his left pad. Shortly thereafter, Dan Girardi had a big block on an Arturri Lehkonen shot, which led to Derek Stepan 169-foot slowly moving empty net goal to seal the win.

Montreal came out desperate early and it showed. They won early puck battles and continually crashing Lundqvist’s crease, as they had done all series. That led to the fight between Max Pacioretty and Jimmy Vesey at 6:06 of the first period after Alexander Radulov, following a soft dump-in to the crease, sprayed Lundqvist with snow. Of course no penalty was called and 13 seconds later, the Canadiens took a 1-0 on Alexei Emelin’s wrist shot over Lundqvist’s glove through traffic from the top of the left circle. It was Emelin's first postseason goal since the 2010 KHL playoffs.




New York was on their heels much of the first but rallied in the second. Pavel Buchnevich drew a holding penalty on Jordie Benn at 1:30 and Zuccarello capitalized less than a minute later, ending an 0-for-14 power play drought in the series with a shot from the right circle that beat Price to the near post under his glove, The goal was made by Ryan McDonagh keeping the puck in the O-zone. Great puck movement, McD to Mike Zibanejad to Zucc, who was able to control the puck with his skate & find a small hole between Price's glove and pad.




Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller had their best game of the playoffs by far. Later in the period. great forecheck by those two and Zuccarello led to the game-winning goal. Miller backhand dish to Hayes who found Zuccarello open at the far post who beat Benn to the puck and put it off Price's pad to make it 2-1 at 13:31 of the second period.




For all those who thought Lundqvist was washed up, whoops. Hank was a beat. He posted a 1.70 GAA and .947 SV% in out-dueling Price. Two saves evidence just how good he was. First, a glove save on Weber late in the second while the Rangers were shorthanded:




Then, late in the third, Lundqvist robbed Plekanec with a left pad save to keep New York in the lead 2-1. Yes, Staal and Holden were on, but a bouncing puck came to the front and Lundqvist made the huge save:




Montreal pulled Price late, and even after Lundqvist's save on Plekanec, the Canadiens had one more chance. Dan Girardi, who was a beast this series, had a big shot block on Arturri Lehkonen, leading to the empty-net goal by Stepan. G was tremendous this series, a great rebound for a character player.




Madison Square Garden after the empty net goal:




A few quick thoughts:

1) Props to AV

I agreed wth playing Tanner Glass early in the series, which paid dividends in the goal Glass scored to win Game 1. Then, he pivoted for game 4, sitting Glass, activating Buchnevich and shifting the line combinations to go with four good lines. I still would sit Nick Holden, but he and Marc Staal were mildly better the last two games of the series. AV also got the Miller-Hayes-Zucc line on against Montreal's fourth line in Game 6 leading to Zucc's second of the game.

2) Take a look at the defense TOI all situations for Game 6.

McD 25:24 Staal 20:52 Holden 20:29 Girardi 20:26 Smith 19:20 Skjei: 12:33.

Love the minutes McD eats up. Really like the playing distribution. But, Skjei didn't see the ice down the stretch, resulting in the low playing time total for him and maybe a bit for Smith. Update: Per Carp, Skjei did not play the final 9:00 of the third period tonight. Played 3:31 in 2nd period, 2:23 in 3rd. Have to wonder if Skjei was banged up during the game. Would love Boston-Ottawa to go seven as Game 7 would be Wednesday, giving New York even more time to heal up after a physical and at times dirty series against Montreal.

3) Pacioretty and Price

Pacioretty is getting eviscerated in the Montreal media. Guy has no true #1 center, was all over the place and had 28 shots in six games. He just didn't score, sounds like Rick Nash, who was vilified despite doing everything but score.

Price was excellent as expected, finishing the series with a .933 save percentage and a 1.86 goals against average. We said before the series that Lundqvist would need to match him save for save and exceed Price for NY to win. A 1.70 GAA and .946 SV% did just that.

4) Team Effort

Down 2-1, the Rangers stepped up their play. An excellent performance and goals by Fast and Nash in Game 4 knotted the series. After a horrific 30 minutes, NY found their sea-legs and rallied behind Kreider and Zib. Tonight, a subpar first was followed by a brilliant second and solid enough third. Miller-Hayes-Zucc, McMonster, Girardi and Lundqvist keyed the victory. When NY is able to roll four lines and get solid play from all three pairs along with the usual elite play from Lundqvist, they are tough to beat.

Want to play physical and dirty, no problem. Want to try and match speed and skill, bring it on. The Rangers showed they can win using either style, which hopefully bodes well for the rest of the way. With the victory, New York has now been successful eight of their past 10 tries to win a series at MSG going back to 2007

5) Special teams

Finally, after 14 chances a PPG. The goal was aided by good puck movement and McDonagh's keep. After allowing two PPG in Game 3, the Rangers didn't allow one the next three games. Shutting down the Montreal power play went a long way to winning this series.

More to come.

Playoff Schedule:

Montreal (A1) vs. New York (WC1)

G1 Wed., April 12 NY Rangers 2 Montreal 0, Rangers lead series 1-0
G2 Fri., April 14 Montreal 2 NY Rangers 1, OT Series tied 1-1
G3 Sun., April 16 Montreal 3 NY Rangers 1 Montreal leads series 2-1
G4 Tue., April 18 NY Rangers 2 Montreal 1 Series tied 2-2
G5 Thu., April 20 NY Rangers 3 Montreal 2, OT, Rangers lead series 3-2
G6 Sat., April 22 NY Rangers 3 Montreal 1, OT, Rangers win series 4-2

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