


You can never count out the Rangers.
The Blueshirts used a third-period comeback — thanks to Chris Kreider’s natural hat trick — to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 win, knocking out the Hurricanes in Game 6 on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
The Rangers had been in the position plenty of times before, leading the NHL this regular season with 28 come-from-behind wins.
And in this round alone, the Rangers had two previous wins win trailing Carolina, winning Game 2 after falling behind 2-1 and 3-2 at points before taking Game 3 after trailing 1-0 after one period.
The coup de grâce for the Rangers came after the trailed 3-1 after two periods on Thursday night, which came after Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook made entered a very late candidate for Save of the Year after diving for a loose puck at the goal line to prevent a Ryan Lindgren goal in the second period.
Undeterred, though, the Rangers were picked up by the 12-year vet in Kreider, who scored a backhander at 6:43 of the third before tipping in a shot from the point at 11:54 to knot things up.
Kreider put the Rangers ahead for good with a goal near the crease with 4:19 to go before Barclay Goodrow added an empty-netter.
In scoring three goals in the third, Krieder became the third Ranger, joining Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky, to notch a hat trick in one period in the playoffs.
“Chris Kreider’s name is going to be in the rafters because of this one. Nobody will ever forget this. This is a Ranger classic,” Steve Valiquette said on the MSG Network postgame show.

Kreider’s historic effort was just another notch in the Rangers’ comeback belt.