For the fourth time in the current playoffs, Rangers have found themselves in a situation where they can’t lose under any circumstances. They burned 1-3 in the series against Pittsburgh and had no right to make a mistake in every subsequent game, and when faced with the Carolinas they lost in two kickoffs and again found themselves in an unpleasant position. . It looks like New York still had a chance of another misfire, only comebacks from 0-3 – such a rare trick that it definitely wasn’t worth pulling for it.

Luckily for the Blue Shirts, Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals had an unusually fantastic fact for them. While the Hurricanes have set a great record this Stanley Cup season, winning 6 out of 6 home games, away games alone for them have ended the other way around – 3 losses in 3 tries. These numbers, combined with the magic of Madison Square Garden, could come in handy for the Rangers.

It turned out to be working. The locals managed to wake up Artemy Panarin – in the semifinals of the conference he did not score until Sunday, but there he already scored a productive 12th minute: he convinced everyone that he would score, and passed the puck to Mika Zibanejad, who cornered the puck.

The already familiar “God mode” was unlocked by Rangers fan favorite Igor Shesterkin. In the first period alone, he took 17 own goals, a total of 43 games accumulated, and the Russians have 339 saves in 10 games this playoff, the best result in history for a New York goalkeeper at 66. year, how much time is spent on similar statistics.

As a result, the key was Shesterkin’s saves – with the score 1:0, he saved his partners until they scored the second goal, and in the end became the winner. In 7 years, not a single Blueshirts goalkeeper has won a playoff game in which he had to dodge 40 or more shots. Igor did it! And even a small mistake at the moment when the Hurricanes scored their only goal of this match did not cloud the overall impression of the Russian goalkeeper’s outstanding 60-minute performance.

At the end of the match, the teams entertained the fans with their fists and tried to save the match by taking the sixth fielder instead of the goalkeeper in Carolina, where Chris Kreider scored an empty goal. All of that didn’t stop the Rangers from winning 3-1 and taking the first step towards their second-to-back beautiful comeback in the 2022 Stanley Cup. Now we need to compare the score in the series, because going to Raleigh, it’s too dangerous not to stumble – let me remind you that the Carolinas are still undefeated at home.