Mika Zibanejad is a goal scorer. It’s what he does in addition to anyone on the Rangers. He led the team with 39 goals this season.
So, make no mistake: the donut next to his name on the stat sheet through the primary five games of this Rangers-Devils first-round playoff series was nagging at him.
Zibanejad had not been playing poorly within the series, he simply had not scored a goal yet.
So, when Zibanejad scored at 10:10 of the second period in Saturday night’s 5-2 Rangers win over the Devils in Game 6 on the Garden, it was a liberating moment for each him and his teammates, who celebrated wildly.
The goal gave the Rangers, who had fallen behind 1-0 at 11:49 of the primary period, a 2-1 lead they not only didn’t relinquish but built upon.
“I’m not going to take a seat here and lie and say it wasn’t a very good feeling seeing the puck go in, however the wins are what matters and we got the win that we would have liked and wanted tonight,’’ Zibanejad said. “Now we just keep going. We got here here to win one game. You heard everyone discuss that. And one other one on Monday.’’
Asked if it was liberating to see a goal go in six games into the series, Zibanejad said, “I’ve been attempting to shoot … and now the puck goes in, so … I don’t know.’’
“It’s a wonderful game we play,’’ teammate Chris Kreider chimed in.
It was a Zibanejad blast from his power-play office on the left dot that was deflected past Devils rookie goaltender Akira Schmid by Kreider to tie the rating at 1-1 with 25 seconds remaining in the primary period.
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“I wish I scored on every shot,” Zibanejad said. “This is able to be a very easy game, a simple game. Nevertheless it’s not. Fidgeting with the blokes I’m fiddling with, they keep trusting me and I keep trusting myself. As an entire, we played well tonight and that was a giant one for us.”
“He also has to play with me,’’ Kreider chimed in. “I’m not exactly a prodigious playmaker, so … ’’
“I encourage to differ on that,’’ Zibanejad said.
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“Mika has played good all series,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “He’s played great defensive hockey. Everybody desires to rating, so it’s huge for him. He’s considered one of our top players. We’ve talked about him all yr long. He wasn’t playing bad in any of the games, but guys prefer to rating. He’s a big-time player for us and it was a giant goal for us.’’
The goal opened up the Rangers’ offensive game.
“I feel we got to our forecheck slightly bit more today, and if you win the battle down low and are able to keep up some zone time — we’ve good players that may create,’’ Zibanejad said. “We know the way hard it’s to defend for a protracted time frame in your personal zone. We tried to make the most of that and the likelihood is going to be there.”
Said Kreider: “They got here out with a excellent push and were in a position to generate some zone time, but we did a very good job of staying patient, maintaining lanes and getting pucks out once we could. Eventually we got some looks.’’
Zibanejad got his and cashed on this time.
