Rangers Win Series, Send Habs Packing

Christina Drury Apr 23, 2017

Well, tonight was quite exciting, with the Rangers eliminating the Canadiens, and sending Price and his cronies back to Montreal. Henrik Lundqvist was on his game and Mats Zuccarello showed everyone why he’s a fan (and teammate) favorite.

Slow First Period

The first period started off a bit sluggish on the Rangers side, with Montreal dominating the puck. Emelin was able to score, going top shelf on Hank, beating him cleanly for the first goal of the game. Towards the end, the Blueshirts garnered a little more momentum, though they failed to score.

Zucc Dominates Second

Zuccarello was the hero of the second period, scoring not one, but two goals including a power play goal! This was the first PPG of the series for the Rangers who were previously 0/14. It was a beauty of a goal, too, one I was almost certain wasn’t going to go in.

👀 @zuccarello36's first 🚨 of the night! https://t.co/AYVbqreTav

— x – New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 23, 2017

For the second goal, Hayes had some good stick-handling action keeping the puck in play before passing it to Zucc who had an empty net to bank it into.

https://twitter.com/BlueSeatBlogs/status/855960333265100800

Maintaining the Lead in the Third

If there’s one thing the Rangers are good at, it’s sitting back when they have a lead. However, the third period was just as gritty, with each player working hard to keep Montreal from tying it up. Derek Stepan sealed the win with an empty-net goal!

https://twitter.com/BlueSeatBlogs/status/855977163354501121

And when Hank celebrated, he embodied how the rest of us were feeling:

https://twitter.com/BlueSeatBlogs/status/855977001659838464

This battle of elite goalies is finally over with Henrik showing everyone why his nickname is The King. The Rangers have a few days to rest up before they’re back at it in Round 2. They’ll face the winner of the Ottawa-Boston series but won’t have home advantage. I’ll be right here watching and recapping with Zak!