Panarin Wins It for Rangers in OT of Game 7

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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