PITTSBURGH — This is the time and this is the place. Game 7. Rangers’ Time.
Almost too late, but just in time, the Rangers found their soul and they found their game and so here they are, this team that has been a tough, tough out for three years running, still one strike away from elimination, that’s true, but now holding the hammer on the Penguins and Pittsburgh’s season.
It’s Game 7 of the Eastern semis on Tuesday, the Rangers in their fifth winner-take-all match since 2012, having won them all, and the Penguins in their third since winning the Cup in a Game 7 in Detroit in 2009, losing these last two, and both at home.
The improbable comeback from down 3-1 to extend this series hasn’t gotten the Rangers anything other than respect. The job is not yet done. There is one more game to be won here. Then the Cup will be half full.
“We’re coming to play,” Brian Boyle said. “We’re going to be in a hostile environment, they’re going to come with everything they have, but so will we.
“We’re certainly in a hell of a lot better situation than we were a few days ago, but there’s nothing to be satisfied about. We need to get to four.”
No Rangers team has ever overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series. Eight current Penguins — Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Chris Kunitz, Kris Letang, Paul Martin, Craig Adams and Matt Niskanen — were part of the 2011 club that blew a 3-1 series lead over the Lightning and lost a 1-0 Game 7 at home to Tampa Bay. Sidney Crosby was sidelined for that series with post-concussion issues.
The Blueshirts have taken control of this series over the last two games. They have outskated the Penguins and for the most part have dictated the tempo. Their forecheck and puck pressure that is predicated on the rolling thunder of four lines that short-shift have scrambled the Penguins in Pittsburgh’s own end. The penalty kill has been perfect.
And Henrik Lundqvist, in top form, has outplayed Fleury. All along the Rangers were only going to win if Lundqvist was not only the best goalie on the ice, but the best player. That’s the weight of the crown on King Henrik. For Games 5 and 6 (and the losing Game 2), Lundqvist has fulfilled that responsibility.
So now The King goes into Game 7 with a 9-2 record, 1.35 goals-against average and .935 save percentage in potential elimination games and a 4-0/0.75/.973 slash in these winner-take-all’s the last three years, the victories by 2-1 over the Senators, 2-1 over the Caps, 5-0 in Washington and 2-1 over the Flyers in Round One.
“I think [that success] is a combination of a couple of things. You need to enjoy that moment, and it is a pressurized situation, but at the same time it is a great opportunity,” Lundqvist said following Monday’s practice at his team’s training facility. “It’s just a fun game to play. I think you relax a little bit; you just go out and play. There’s some confidence, too. It’s all that. You can’t just point out one thing.
“As a group you need to go out there and feel pretty good about yourself. There’s no second-guessing. You just go out and play your absolute best and then you see if it’s enough or not.”
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma played Crosby and Malkin on the same line for nearly every shift in going for the KO the last two games, and why not? But the Rangers have been as tenacious as possible against the Power Couple, and they’ve driven Crosby to fits.
No. 87 has one goal in the series and one goal in 12 games for the playoffs, and his Game 6 behavior at the Garden was peevish in the way it was when the Penguins were swept in the conference finals last year by Boston, and the way it was when his team was eliminated in six by the Flyers in the 2012 first round.
The Rangers are all in. All of them. All you have to do is watch the desperation and urgency with which Rick Nash is playing to recognize that.
No. 61 still does not have a goal, but he is throwing his body around the ice with abandon, credited with nine hits in the last three games after recording 11 hits in 65 regular-season matches. He has played dogged and determined hockey in the defensive zone and has been an outstanding penalty-killer. Sunday after a penalty-kill clear went awry, Nash dived with full extension to block a shot. Nash was brought here to score in games like these but the truth is, he is doing everything but.
The Blueshirts have gutted their way back into this series. They are winning the 50-50 puck battles. They are taking hits to make plays. They are getting the bigger saves, they are skating, they are creating and they are on the verge of creating franchise history against a team that has for so long tormented them.
Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Game 7. This is the place and this is the time.
This is Rangers’ Time.