So if anyone ever does a remake of the film, “It Happens Every Spring,” what do you say they cast Chris Kreider in the lead role?
The kid has the touch in big moments, that’s for sure. That’s what people said when he was leading Boston College to a pair of NCAA championships, and that’s what we all saw a year ago when he stepped off the Chestnut Hill campus to score five goals in the playoffs for the Rangers.
The sixth was a year in the making… a year of puzzlement and of frustration… a year of waiting for an opportunity to contribute… and a night of taking advantage of that opportunity when it finally came to him.
Good things come to those who… persevere.
The sixth playoff goal of Kreider’s embryonic career was a life-saver for the Rangers, the overtime winner — yes, friends, overtime winner — in last night’s 4-3 Game 4 victory over the Bruins at the Garden that made tomorrow’s Game 5 in Boston necessary indeed.
“It’s just a surreal feeling, pure jubilation” Kreider said after he drove the net from the left to re-direct Rick Nash’s beautiful feed off a right wing rush past Tuukka Rask at 7:03 of extra time. “It’s just exciting to give the guys an opportunity to play another game.”
If there is such a thing as a near-death experience, last night was it for the Blueshirts. OK, perhaps it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the Bruins’ Round 1 Game 7 experience against the Maple Leafs in which they rose from the grave like Carrie in surmounting a 4-1 third-period deficit, but the Rangers were lifeless heading to the midway point of the second, down 2-0.
But then, Rask fell down on his butt and could not get up, and down became up for the Blueshirts. The goaltender fell down on a Carl Hagelin backhand that deflected off Johnny Boychuk’s stick and somehow went in at 8:29 as Rask was helpless on the seat of his pants in the vicinity of the right post.
“Probably the ugliest goal I have ever seen,” Henrik Lundqvist said after improving to 4-11 in overtime with a 37-save performance that included dazzlers in OT on Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Jaromir Jagr. “It turned it around for us, and that’s hockey.
“A save or a goal or one shift can change everything. Tonight, it was an ugly goal.”
It’s true. It changed everything. The goal gave the Rangers a lifeline that they grabbed onto with all their strength. They tied early in the third when Derek Stepan stripped Zdeno Chara behind the net and slid the puck home on a wraparound. They tied it later on a power play goal from Brian Boyle — again, no need to adjust the prescription, folks — in simply refusing to yield.
The inevitable wasn’t.
What sure wasn’t inevitable was Kreider, who bounced between the Blueshirts and the AHL Whale through a season in which coach John Tortorella made it clear he did not feel the winger was NHL-ready or dependable.
Kreider played in 23 games during the season, getting under 10:00 in nine of them. He played Game 1 against the Capitals (8:23) and was scratched for the next four matches before being reinstated when the Rangers reached their injury depletion allowance.
There was limited time, most of it spent on the fourth line until late in the second period of Tuesday’s Game 3 when Tortorella moved Kreider onto the second line with Nash and Derick Brassard. The winger went down and out of the match early in the third after taking a stick to the left eye, but he was back last night on the second unit, which is where he stayed throughout.
“[Playing time] is not something I really think about or worry about,” Kreider said. “That’s the responsibility of the coaches, who have a lot of reasons for what they do.
“I let them do their job.”
Kreider was flying last night, using his speed to his advantage, unafraid to try and be a difference maker in 13:50 of ice. You watched him as a bookend across from Nash and could imagine the future even as the present was playing out and the immediate past was behind the BC Kid.
“I don’t worry about things that are out of my control,” Kreider said. “It’s an important part of the process of playing hockey.
“I think identifying what I can and can’t control is something I’m pretty good at. I hope so.”
Scoring goals in the playoffs is something Kreider is pretty good at, too. It happens every spring.
larry.brooks@nypost.com