Photo: TT
First conference final.
Then the Rangers tightened the bow – and crushed the reigning champions Tampa Bay.
And Mika Zibenjad’s scoring success just continues, and now he’s actually the best Rangers player since Wayne Gretzky.
Yes, it’s not just any playoff game that Mika Zibanejad and the New York Rangers do. Rangers did a good basic series but not many tipped the team past the first round, and even less past the second.
New scoring success
But they have made it all the way to the conference final, and in the first match against the reigning champions, they showed that they are to be reckoned with. And as usual, it was Mika Zibanejad who was behind most of the team’s offensive.
Mika makes a completely senseless playoff and was, before tonight’s Game 1, in third place in the playoffs scoring, just behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. In tonight’s match, it did not take long before he hit a perfect pass to Chris Kreider who made it 1-0. The score was 1-1 after the first period, but then the Rangers pulled away – and eventually won 6-2.
First then Gretzky
Mika also had to enter the goal protocol with an incomparable direct shot until 6-2 in powerplay. It was thus two points, which means that Zibanejad steps up to 21 points in this year’s finals, that in only 15 games played, against some of the world’s best players. And it is actually historically good of the Swede.
Zibanejad is the first Rangers player to reach 20 points in a playoff game since 1997. And it was not directly anyone who did it then. It was Wayne Gretzky, The Great One, who then scored 20 points in 15 matches, a result that Mika now beats with his 21 points. The next match, the second of the conference finals, will be played during the night towards Sunday.
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