And then there was Alexandar Georgiev, who finished out his rookie season earning points in five of his last six starts, and wins in four of them. He stopped 36 shots in this one, the ninth time in his 30 starts this season that he had 36 or more saves.
Overall, dating to last Friday's Garden win over St. Louis, Georgiev stopped 142 of the final 147 shots that came his way.
"Everyone gave our all-out today, battled, played with the heart, passion. … Did a hell of a job," Georgiev said. "I'm very proud. Everybody battled so hard."
Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel each got one past him, with assists on each other's goals - Crosby got his 100th point this season, and Guentzel his 40th goal - and Nick Bjugstad also scored for the Penguins. But the Rangers got four pucks past Matt Murray on 30 shots to beat the Penguins goaltender for the first time in 10 tries in the regular season and playoffs.
When it all shook out on Saturday night, the Rangers knew where they stood heading into Tuesday's NHL Draft Lottery: They have the sixth-best chance, at 7.5 percent, of snagging the No. 1 pick in June's Entry Draft. Meanwhile, by earning a point for reaching overtime, the Penguins settled into the No. 3 spot in the Metropolitan Division and will begin their playoffs on Long Island later this week.
That's the kind of subject matter that going forward Quinn wants to be discussing at this time of year, but for this night, Quinn said he addressed his team afterward and "I just thanked them for their effort," the coach said. "This has been a great group to coach. We want to be playing past this point next year. But they gave it their all."
They were behind 6:36 into this one when Guentzel and Crosby were clinical on a 2-on-1, but Smith answered back six minutes after that, stepping in front of Garrett Wilson's pass through the middle of the ice and never breaking stride as he snapped one over Murray from the left circle. It was Smith's third point in the season's final four games, and his 21st goal in a career almost exclusively manning blue lines - the first of those 21 goals that came unassisted.
"It's good to see him get rewarded for all his hard work," Quinn said. "That was a heck of a goal - that was a big-time goal."
That tie carried into second intermission, and once it got that far, the game's importance was never bigger for the Penguins: Carolina was winning its game in Philadelphia, a result that would have knocked the Penguins down to the Wild Card had the Rangers won regulation time.
And so when the Penguins made their push in the third, the Rangers - true to 2018-19 form - simply would not go away. Bjugstad cleaned up a fortuitous bounce at the net to put the home side back in front just 2:28 into the period, but Skjei evened it again with 7:26 to play off a feed from Kevin Shattenkirk - coming just moments after Shattenkirk had put one off Murray's goalpost.