Rangers show resiliency to finish Hurricanes, reach Eastern Conference Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Jacob Trouba paused when he heard the question. It was for maybe a second. He didn't need any longer.

Did you learn anything new about your team tonight?

"No, I didn't," the New York Rangers defenseman said. "That's the team that we know we have."

The Rangers didn't know for sure that they were going to come back from two goals down in the third period to advance to the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday with a 5-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6 of the second round at PNC Arena.

But they believed they would. They always believe they will. And they typically do.

"I'm not surprised," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I would find it hard to believe that the players would say that they're surprised. I would say just knowing what we've done this year that this could happen tonight."

Resiliency has been a Rangers buzz word all season, and for good reason.

They led the NHL with 28 comeback wins during the regular season. They had four in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games before the third period started Thursday, the Rangers down 3-1 after being thoroughly outplayed for two periods in Game 6 and all three periods in 4 -1 loss in Game 5.

But there was no panic when they entered the dressing room after the second period.

"It was calm," Trouba said. "Just the confidence in the game we play, no one was in here freaking out or yelling, it was just kind of go out and play 20 minutes how we play. We get one in the first 10. We think we can get a second one. We get three. I don't think there was any panic or frustration, just go out and play our game for another 20 minutes."

Chris Kreider led the way, scoring a natural hat trick to put the Rangers ahead. He scored his three goals in a span of 8:58 in the third period, making it 3-2 at 6:43, 3-3 with a power-play goal at 11:54 and 4-3 at 15:41.

Kreider even said before the third period that he felt he was going to get one.

His performance was reminiscent of Mark Messier's third-period natural hat trick in Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Final that brought the Rangers back from down 2-1 to force a Game 7 against the New Jersey Devils that they eventually won on their way to winning the Stanley Cup.

Alexei Kovalev started the comeback that night with a goal at 18:19 of the second period to make it 2-1.

Kreider did it all Thursday.

"It never really felt like we were out of it," he said. "We talk about being a resilient group, a competitive group and I think we showed that tonight."

In doing so, the Rangers and Kreider did things done by so few in team and NHL history.

Kreider became the third Rangers player to score three goals in a single period of a playoff game, joining Messier and Wayne Gretzky (second period, Game 4, 1997 conference quarterfinals).

He became the third player in Rangers history to score a hat trick in a potential series-clinching game, joining Mike Gartner (Game 5, 1990 Patrick Division semifinals) and Steve Vickers (Game 5, 1973 quarterfinals).

Kreider is the third player in NHL history to have a hat trick in the third period that included the series-clinching goal and the eighth player in NHL history to have a natural hat trick in the third period of a Stanley Cup Playoff game.

In addition, this was the second time the Rangers won a series by coming back from down two or more goals in the third period of the clinching game. The other time was in Game 6 of the 1940 Stanley Cup Final.

The Montreal Canadiens (five times) are the only other team in NHL history to do it more than once.

"Our guys have been there before, done that before," Laviolette said. "We knew that we could score two goals in the third period just I think from confidence of the year that we've had. But that being said you've got to go out there and do the work and I thought the guys really pressed in the third period. … They never caved on that game. They brought their best in the third period."

The Rangers now wait to find out their opponent in the conference final, either the Florida Panthers or Boston Bruins. The Panthers have a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series going into Game 6 at TD Garden on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"When they tell us it's time to go we'll be ready to go," Laviolette said.

And if they're down in a game or even the series, don't count them out.

The Rangers came back from down 2-0 early in the second period and 3-2 late in the third to defeat the Panthers 4-3 in a shootout March 23. They came back from 1-0 down twice to defeat the Bruins in the regular season, 2-1 on Dec. 16 and 5-2 on March 21.

It's what they do.