Rangers cruise past Hurricanes in Game 7, advance to East Final

RALEIGH, N.C. --The New York Rangers advanced to the Eastern Conference Final with a 6-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of the second round at PNC Arena on Monday.

The Rangers, who are the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan Division, will have home-ice advantage against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division.
It's New York's first appearance in the conference final since 2015, when it was eliminated by Tampa Bay in seven games.
"Obviously, they're a great team. They won two Cups. Jon Cooper is a great coach, good friend of mine. It should be a good battle," Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "It should be a fun series. We played them well in the regular season (3-0-0), which means nothing, but we're looking forward to the challenge."
RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs. Rangers series coverage]
Chris Kreider scored two goals, Adam Fox and Andrew Copp each had a goal and an assist, and Igor Shesterkin made 37 saves for New York. Mika Zibanejad had three assists.
"I think that's how you win in the playoffs," Kreider said. "It's a team game, you need 20 guys pulling in the right direction, and we had that tonight. Obviously, having a good start helped, and I think special teams came through for us tonight in a pretty big spot, and our goaltender was once again our best player."

Carolina, which was the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan, lost for the first time at home this postseason (7-1).
Antti Raanta made 16 saves before sustaining a lower-body injury late in the second period. He was replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov, who made nine saves.
"We were right there with these guys," Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. "Anything can happen in Game 7, and obviously we're on the wrong side this time. Did we want to get to Game 7? No. We had to find a way to sneak one (win) on the road, which we didn't. Tonight was just some bounces, and everyone wasn't quite there, including myself, and unfortunately we ended the season."
Fox gave New York a 1-0 lead at 3:40 of the first period, taking a drop pass from
Alexis Lafreniere
and scoring glove side from the top of the right circle on the power play.
"Our power play has come through for us all year, and these types of games you want it to, and it did," Fox said.
Kreider scored another power-play goal to push it to 2-0 at 8:00 when he redirected Zibanejad's one-timer just above the crease.
"It was the same story. I thought we had a great first period," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "They got the two power-play goals, and it was a killer because I really felt we were playing well. So that's kind of the broken record on this one, this series."
Shersterkin preserved the two-goal lead when he stopped a one-timer from Teuvo Teravainen with the toe of his left pad six seconds after Kreider scored on the power play.
"We scored two quick goals, and this helped me so much," Shesterkin said. "I felt a little shaky before the game, but when I go to the ice, I tried to forget about everything and tried to keep focused on the puck."

Ryan Strome made it 3-0 at 16:19 of the second period, shooting short side on a 2-on-1. The goal came 42 seconds after Kochetkov replaced Raanta.
Kreider extended the lead to 4-0 at 3:59 of the third period. He took a lead pass from Frank Vatrano, cut around Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin and lifted a backhand over Kochetkov's left pad.
"That goal was a beautiful goal, the breakaway goal," Gallant said. "He played hard and competed hard. I thought all our guys were good tonight. They played probably their best game of the series, obviously, and if we were going to win tonight, we had to play our best game of the series."

Vincent Trocheck cut it to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 8:11, but Filip Chytil scored 40 seconds later to make it 5-1.
Max Domi then made it 5-2 at 16:13 before Copp shot into an empty net at 17:08 for the 6-2 final.
The win was the Rangers' fifth when facing elimination this postseason. They came from down 3-1 in the first round to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins before winning the final two games of this series against the Hurricanes.
"We're a resilient group in there. We've said it all year," Fox said. "[We had] our backs against the wall five times now and we've come through all five. We definitely want to keep this momentum going into the next round."
NOTES:Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis left the game with an upper-body injury after he was hit by Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba early in the first period. … Zibanejad (four goals, four assists) and Fox (two goals, six assists) each has eight points in a five-game point streak. … New York went 7-for-21 on the power play in the series. Carolina was 2-for-18.