So now the Rangers are face-to-face with a task with which they have a gnarled history, a situation in which they have failed repeatedly and seen it come back to haunt them down the line.
Which is not to say the Rangers are looking past Tuesday’s Game 6 in Philadelphia, a game that now presents them with the chance to bury the Flyers following Sunday afternoon’s 4-2 win at the Garden, giving the Blueshirts a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven first-round playoff contest.
But, dating to 2009, the previous 11 times the Rangers have won a game to take a series lead, they’ve lost the next game. They haven’t won a playoff series in less than seven games in the past six seasons, and yet here it is again, the opportunity to show a bit of ruthlessness that will help them immensely if they find a way to move on.
“Got to get it done,” said defenseman Marc Staal, who got the Rangers a 1-0 lead 11:53 into this one with a deflected slap shot that beat Steve Mason under his glove. “Simple as that — we have to win a game. You can’t take your foot off the gas. I think we have to have that killer instinct where you go in there confident that you’re going to win the game. No matter how, we just have to do it.”
Somehow, Staal and his mates found a way to win this pivotal game, one that was artless and choppy. According to the Elias Sport Bureau, in NHL history there have been 227 best-of-seven playoff series tied 2-2, with the winner of Game 5 going on to take the series in 180 of those (79.3 percent).
“We took back the advantage and we have to win one now,” said Brad Richards, who got the Rangers a 2-0 lead with a nice elevated backhand, 8:07 into the second. “We put ourselves in a good position after being tied 2-2 [in the series]. It was a good overall effort.”
The effort really should have been described as good enough, as the Blueshirts did take five penalties and gave the Flyers a total of 9:11 on the man-advantage. But the Philly power play could get only one goal during that span, a long shot from Vinny Lecavalier late in the second that deflected in off Kevin Klein’s stick, a goal that cancelled out Dominic Moore’s breakaway goal three minutes earlier and made it a 3-1 Rangers advantage into the third.
“I’ve kind of had the feeling that would come back and bite us in the ass after the game,” Flyers forward Scott Hartnell said about the first four power plays through the opening half of the game — three on Carl Hagelin penalties — that all went for naught. “We needed to be better.”
A glimmer of hope arose for Philadelphia with 1:29 remaining in the game, when coach Craig Berube pulled Mason and Claude Giroux got his first goal of the series, a rocket from the left wall that cut the lead to 3-2. But with the net still empty as the Flyers attempted to tie it, Brian Boyle batted one into the open cage to seal things up.
“I don’t think we gave them a ton of time and space, which isn’t always easy to do with who they have up front,” Boyle said, after his team limited the Flyers to 26 shots, 24 turned aside rather easily by Henrik Lundqvist. “I think it was a pretty good performance from that standpoint.”
Yet the most meaningful performance of the season will come Tuesday at the fierce, orange-clad Wells Fargo Center. If there has to be a Game 7 back at the Garden on Wednesday, the momentum will be with the Flyers. And, as can be seen from the Rangers’ past — most notably their 20-year Stanley Cup drought — grueling series after grueling series can take their toll.
“Going in there, the place is going to be rocking, they’re going to be ready to go,” Staal said. “So we have to be that much better.”